IN BRIEF

A LETTER HAS BEEN MADE PUBLIC, WRITTEN IN LATIN and dated April 2, in which the Pope appoints Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, president of the Pontifical Council "Justice and Peace" and of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, as his special envoy to celebrations marking the fifth centenary of the death of St, Francis of Paola. The event is due to be held in Paola, Italy, from May 1 to 4. The cardinal will be accompanied by Msgrs. Aniceto Molinaro, pro-dean of the faculty of philosophy at the St. Anselm Pontifical Athenaeum, Rome, and Luigi Falcone of the Secretariat of State.

TO MARK THE BEGINNING OF THE GERMAN PRESIDENCY of the European Union and of the Group of Eight most industrialized States (G8), the Holy Father sent a Letter, dated December 16, 2006, to Angela Merkel, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. In the Letter, the Pope expresses the appreciation of the Catholic Church for the intention, expressed by the German government and shared by the other members of the G8, to keep the theme of poverty as the focus of international political agreements, with particular concern for Africa. The German chancellor replied to the Pope's Letter with one of her own in which she expresses her intention to continue to combat poverty and to achieve the millennium development goals.
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