OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 16, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Msgr. Mariano Crociata of the clergy of the diocese of Mazara del Vallo, Italy, vicar general, and pastor of the mother church of Marsala, as bishop of Noto (area 1,355, population 213,000, Catholics 211,000, priests 123, permanent deacons 15, religious 249), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Castelvetrano, Italy in 1953 and ordained a priest in 1979. He succeeds Bishop Giuseppe Malandrino, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Erected the new diocese of Sandakan (area 43,657, population 1,000,000, Catholics 64,000, priests 8, religious 2) Malaysia, with territory taken from the diocese of Kota Kinabalu, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Kuching. He appointed Fr. Julius Dustin Gitom, priest of the diocese of Kota Kinabalu, as first bishop of the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Kampung Loltos, Malaysia in 1957 and ordained a priest in 1989.

 - Appointed Msgr. Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, in service in the Holy Father's personal secretariat, as coadjutor archbishop of Lviv of the Latins (area 68,000, population 4,500,000, Catholics 150,000, priests 138, permanent deacons 1, religious 213), Ukraine. The archbishop-elect was born in Majdan Lukawiecki, Poland in 1961 and was ordained a priest in 1987.

 - Appointed Bishop Marian Buczek, auxiliary of Lviv of the Latins, Ukraine, as coadjutor bishop of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia of the Latins (area 196,300, population 19,561,190, Catholics 61,200, priests 40, religious 114), Ukraine.

 - Appointed Fr. Justin Saw Min Thide, bursar of the archdiocese of Yangon, Myanmar, as auxiliary of the same archdiocese (area 66,535, population 15,932,000, Catholics 84,259, priests 83, religious 312). The bishop-elect was born in Thaung, Myanmar in 1951 and ordained a priest in 1984.

  On Saturday, July 14, it was made public that the Holy Father appointed Msgr. Marcello Bartolucci, bureau chief at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, as under-secretary of the same congregation.
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HOLIDAYS: PHYSICAL REST AND SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT

VATICAN CITY, JUL 15, 2007 (VIS) - At midday today, Benedict XVI prayed the Angelus at the Castle of Mirabello, near the chalet where he is spending a holiday in the alpine locality of Lorenzago di Cadore, Italy.

  Before the Marian prayer, the Pope addressed some words to the hundreds of people who had gathered to see him. "Before this panorama of fields, woods and peaks towering up to the sky," he said, "we feel a spontaneous desire to praise God for the wonders of His work, and our admiration for such natural beauty is easily transformed into prayer.

  "Each good Christian," he added, "knows that holidays are an appropriate moment for physical relaxation, as well as for nourishing the spirit by giving greater space to prayer and mediation, in order to grow in our personal relationship with Christ and to adapt ourselves ever more to His teachings."

  The Pope then went on to consider today's Gospel reading on the Good Samaritan, saying that "each of us must be a neighbor to everyone we come across. ... Love, says Jesus, is to behave like the Good Samaritan. And we know that the Good Samaritan par excellence is He; for although He is God, He did not hesitate to lower Himself to becoming a man and to giving His life for us.

  "Love, then, is the 'heart' of Christian life. In fact only love, aroused in us by the Holy Spirit, makes us witnesses of Christ," said the Holy Father and he recalled how "this important spiritual truth" will be at the heart of his Message for 23rd World Youth Day, due to be published on Friday, July 20, with the title: 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses."

  "This is the theme, dear young people," he concluded, "upon which I invite you to reflect over the coming months, so as to prepare yourselves for the great appointment due to take place in Sydney, Australia, in a year's time."
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ERADICATION OF POVERTY IS A MORAL COMMITMENT

VATICAN CITY, JUL 14, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was a an address delivered by Archbishop Silvano Tomasi C.S., permanent observer to the Office of the United Nations and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, during the "Substantive Session" of the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

  In his English-language talk, which he delivered on July 4, Archbishop Tomasi made it clear that "the continued effort to address the plight of people trapped in poverty and to search for new ways and means to free them from its destructive consequences remains essential if the international community wants to achieve truly integral human development."

  "Poverty elimination demands an integration between the mechanisms that produce wealth and the mechanisms for the distribution of its benefits at the international, regional and national levels."

  "The projects of multilateral institutions and developed countries aimed at reducing poverty and improving growth in poor regions, like the Millennium Development Goals, the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and the Poverty Reduction Strategy, have made some limited progress," said the permanent observer.

  After highlighting the fact that "eradication of poverty is a moral engagement," Archbishop Tomasi concluded by saying that "the various religions and cultures see the achievement of this end as a most important task that frees people from much suffering and marginalization, that helps them to live peacefully together, and that provides individuals and communities the freedom to protect their dignity and actively contribute to the common good."
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