POPE PRAISES THE EVANGELICAL WISDOM OF PAUL VI

VATICAN CITY, SEP 27, 2007 (VIS) - Yesterday evening in the Swiss Hall of the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo, Benedict XVI attended a concert by the "Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli" International Festival Orchestra of Brescia and Bergamo, Italy. The event was organized to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of Pope Paul VI who was a native of the town of Concesio near Brescia.

  "Listening to these famous passages of music," said the Pope in a brief address he gave at the end of the concert, "has given us the opportunity to recall an illustrious Pope, Paul VI, who rendered a vital service to the Church and to the world in uneasy times, and in social conditions marked by profound cultural and religious changes."

  The Holy Father praised the "evangelical wisdom" with which Paul VI "guided the Church during and after Vatican Council II. With prophetic intuition, he understood the hopes and fears of the men and women of that time, seeking to highlight the positive aspects and illuminate them with the light of truth and of the love of Christ."

  "The love he nourished for humanity and its progress," Pope Benedict went on, "did not, however, prevent him from highlighting the contradictions ... and the risks of scientific and technological advancement disassociated from solid ... ethical and spiritual values."

  "Paul VI," the Holy Father concluded, "guided the Church prudently and courageously, with a realism and evangelical optimism nourished by indomitable faith. He hoped for the advent of a 'civilization of love,' convinced that evangelical charity is indispensable in creating authentic universal fraternity. ... His successors have taken up the spiritual heritage of Servant of God Paul VI and followed in his wake."
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UKRAINE: UNITY OF CATHOLICS IN THE DIVERSITY OF RITES

VATICAN CITY, SEP 27, 2007 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father met with Latin-rite prelates of the Ukrainian Episcopal Conference who have just completed their "ad limina" visit.

  In his talk to the bishops, the Pope expressed his appreciation for "the catechetical, liturgical, apostolic and charitable activities" in their dioceses. "Your pastoral work," he said, "is undertaken in a territory in which faithful of Latin rite and those of Greek-Catholic rite coexist."

  After highlighting how collaboration, even among Catholics, is not always easy due to "the diversity of their respective traditions," Benedict XVI affirmed that "the unity of Catholics within the diversity of rites, and the efforts to express this in all fields, reveal the true face of the Catholic Church and represent a highly eloquent sign for other Christians and for society as a whole."

  Referring to the problems the bishops identified in their reports, the Holy Father indicated how the solution "necessarily requires a synergy of efforts for a renewed announcement of the Gospel. The long years of atheist and communist domination have left evident traces in the current generations. These are challenges which call out to you to be met."

  "If communion is consolidated within Catholic communities, it will be easier to conduct a fruitful dialogue between the Catholic Church and the other Churches and ecclesial communities," said the Holy Father. In this context, he noted the importance of ecumenism and mentioned the "daily dialogue" Catholics seek to maintain with Orthodox, encouraging the prelates to ensure "that obstacles and even failures do not dampen your enthusiasm."

  Benedict XVI also turned to consider "the fundamental importance of adequately forming priests so that they can accomplish their mission as well as possible, and of concern for vocations which," he said, "is a pastoral priority to secure workers for the Lord's harvest.

  "The majority of priests," the Pope added, "show true abnegation, joyful generosity and humble adaptation to the precarious situation in which they find themselves, sometimes even forced to face economic difficulties. May God ever conserve and protect them! Love them because they are your indispensable collaborators, support and encourage them, pray for them and with them ... Ensure that in seminaries aspiring priests are given a full and balanced formation," without neglecting "the permanent formation of priests."

  The Pope concluded his address by underscoring how "the formation of lay men and women capable of bearing witness to their faith is becoming ever more necessary in our times, and is one of the pastoral objectives that must be pursued with determination."
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TOURISM OPENS DOORS FOR WOMEN

VATICAN CITY, SEP 27, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was a Letter from Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. to Francesco Frangialli, secretary general of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), for the occasion of World Tourism Day which is being celebrated today and has as its theme: "Tourism opens doors for women."

  In his Letter, the cardinal highlights the fact that, according to the most recent WTO statistics, around 46 percent of the people employed in the international tourist industry are women.

  However, he notes, "despite this large and effective female presence, in many cases women are prevented from reaching positions of administrative responsibility and management in tourism. The reasons for this negative phenomenon are to be found in deep-rooted prejudices which lead to the persistence of stereotyping and of the traditional attribution of secondary roles on the basis of gender." This is particularly evident, the cardinal continues, "in those parts of the world where the moral, cultural and civil status of women puts them in a position of weakness and injustice."

  Cardinal Bertone then goes on to point out that all tourists, whatever their religion, social class or nationality, must commit themselves "to the protection and promotion of women." In this context he underlines the need "to work for an effective equality of rights for women, guaranteeing them equal treatment in the workplace, religious freedom, respect for the needs associated with motherhood, and the payment of a fair and remunerative salary."

  The Secretary of State adds: "Concrete support must be given to the right of girls and women to study and achieve professional qualifications, using appropriate positive laws to combat all forms of unjust exploitation of the female sex and the shameful commercialization of the female body. It is incumbent upon us to decry the intolerable scandal of a certain kind of sexual tourism which humiliates women, reducing them to a situation of practical slavery."

  The cardinal quotes the Message for World Peace Day 2007 in which Benedict XVI "denounced the 'inadequate consideration' shown for the condition of women and 'the mindset persisting in some cultures, where women are still firmly subordinated to the arbitrary decisions of men, with grave consequences for their personal dignity and for the exercise of their fundamental freedoms.' Only by overcoming these forms of discrimination," Cardinal Bertone concludes, "will it be possible for tourism to combine a concern for the tourists' experience with a guarantee for the quality of life of residents."
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, SEP 27, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

 - Three prelates from the Ukrainian Episcopal Conference, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Bishop Markiyan Trofym'yak of Lutsk.

    - Bishop Antal Majnek O.F.M. of Mukacheve of the Latins.

    - Bishop Bronislaw Bernacki of Odessa-Simferopol.

 - Cardinal Camillo Ruini, His Holiness' vicar general for the diocese of Rome.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 27, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Andres Stanovnick O.F.M. Cap. of Reconquista, Argentina, as archbishop of Corrientes (area 26,218, population 946,936, Catholics 880,649, priests 96, permanent deacons 21, religious 87), Argentina. The archbishop-elect was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1949, he was ordained a priest in 1978 and consecrated a bishop in 2001. He succeeds Archbishop Domingo Salvador Castagna, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
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