AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, MAR 26, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

- Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, president-elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and his entourage.
- Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid, Spain.
- Archbishop Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
- Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Germany.

He is scheduled to receive later this evening, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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PROMULGATION OF DECREES BY CONGREGATION FOR CAUSES OF SAINTS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 26, 1999 (VIS) - Today in the Consistory Hall, the following decrees were promulgated in the presence of John Paul II and members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and postulators of the respective causes:
- Three decrees regarding miracles attributed to the intercession of Blesseds:
- Tommaso da Cori (ne Francesco Antonio Placidi), Italian, priest of the Order of Friars Minor (1655-1729).
- Benedetto (ne Angelo Menni Figini), Italian, priest of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God, and founder of the Hospital Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1841-1914).
- Maria de Jesus Sacramento (nee Maria Venegas de la Torre), Mexican, foundress of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Heart of Jesus (1868-1959).

- One decree regarding a miracle attributed to the intercession of Servant of God Mariano de Jesus Euse Hoyos, Colombian, diocesan priest (1845-1926).

- Three decrees regarding the martyrdom of Servants of God:
- Anton Julian Nowowiejski, archbishop-bishop of Plock, Henrick Kaczorowski and Anicet Koplinski, diocesan priests, Maria Anna Biernacka, lay woman, and 104 companions, Polish, martyred for the faith during the Nazi persecution of the Church from 1939-1945.
- Stefan Vincenz Frelichowksi, Polish, diocesan priest, (1913-1945), died "ex aerumnis carceris" in 1945 at Dachau concentration camp, Germany.
- Alfonso Lopez and five companions, Spanish, of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, who were martyred for the faith on July 27 and 31, and August 3, 1936, during the religious persecution of the Second Spanish Republic, in Salamus, Spain.

- Five decrees regarding the heroic virtue of Servants of God:
- Lino da Parma (ne Linus Maupas), Croatian, of the Order of Friars Minor (1866-1924).
- Egidio Giuseppe Dei Sacri Cuori (ne Severino Malacarne), Italian, priest of the Congregation of the Passionists (1877-1953).
- Aureliano del Santisimo Sacramento (ne Pedro Landeta y Azcueta), Spanish, priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (1887-1963).
- Isabel del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus (nee Isabel Larranga Ramirez), Filipino, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1836-1899).
- Marie Elizabeth Hesselblad, Swedish, foundress of the Order of the Most Holy Savior and of St. Brigid (1870-1957).

Among those present were Archbishop Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Archbishop Edward Nowak, secretary, a group of cardinals and members of dicasteries.

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 26, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Roberto Octavio Gonzalez, O.F.M., of Corpus Christi as metropolitan archbishop of San Juan de Puerto Rico (area 1,051, population 1,233,743, Catholics 1,002,080, priests 300, religious 552), Puerto Rico. The archbishop-elect was born in Elizabeth, United States of America, in 1950, was ordained a priest in 1977 and a bishop in 1988. He succeeds Cardinal Luis Aponte Martinez, whose resignation from the pastoral care of this archdiocese was accepted by the Holy Father on having reached the age limit.

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HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE ON NATO BOMBINGS OF YUGOSLAVIA

VATICAN CITY, MAR 25, 1999 (VIS) - Last evening, Wednesday, March 24, shortly after the start of the bombings by NATO forces against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration:

"Recourse to the use of force is always a defeat for humanity. One cannot help but think of the eventual victims and the feelings of hatred that will inevitably arise. It makes one think of Pius XII's words on August 24, 1939: 'Nothing is lost with peace. All can be lost with war'."

Also last night, relative to the postponement of the visit of a delegation from the Patriarchate of Moscow, which was to have taken place in coming days in the Vatican, Dr. Navarro-Valls thus answered journalists' questions:

"The decision taken by the Patriarchate of Moscow, due to the situation which has been created in the Balkans, and for reasons extraneous to both the Holy See and the Patriarchate, is understandable.

"As was previously announced in Moscow, it is only a question of changing dates, agreed to by both parties."

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HOLY FATHER INAUGURATES ROME-ARMENIA EXHIBITION

VATICAN CITY, MAR 25, 1999 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon in the Sala Regia, Pope John Paul inaugurated the Rome-Armenia Exhibition in the presence of Armenia's President Kocharian, His Holiness Karekin I, Catholicos of All the Armenians, and His Beatitude Jean Pierre XVIII Kasparian, patriarch of Armenian Catholics.

Karekin I was accompanied by His Beatitude Patriarch Torkom, archbishop of Jerusalem. Prelates, priests and lay people from these Churches also attended the opening.

"You have wished to honor the Church of Rome in the most beautiful manner accorded to Christians, by the witness of charity and the holy kiss of communion," the Holy Father told Catholicos Karekin I. "I deeply appreciate this delicate gesture, which constitutes a new and important chapter in the history of the common quest for full unity between Christ's followers."

John Paul II remarked that "communion does not mean the absorption and loss of one's own identity. Rather, it is a shared pilgrimage to the one Lord, preserving what is specific and gaining the strength and richness that comes from universality."

He then addressed "warm greetings" to Patriarch Kasparian, accompanied by bishops of his Church, and noted that "full communion with the See of Peter, while making this Church an integral part of the Catholic family, does not separate it from the marvelous heritage of spiritual life and culture which brings so much honor to the Armenian people."

Turning to the history of the Armenian people, the Pope said that, "despite opposition and even open persecution, Armenians did not close in upon themselves, but considered it vital ... to engage in an open and intelligent exchange with other peoples. ... They have always shown initiative and courage, ever sustained by the power of the Gospel which shaped their history and provided a solid foundation for their life."

"The relationship between Armenia and Rome preceded the coming of Christianity, but Christianity soon became the very reason for that relationship," affirmed the Pope. He added that communion between the Armenian Church in the Cilicia region and the Church of Rome "reached an intensity perhaps never attained in other cases."

If the cultural exchange "failed to yield more lasting fruit, it was in part due to the intransigence of some who perhaps were not able to appreciate fully the value of so providential an opportunity. On the Roman side, some of this lack of understanding was the result of tragic internal conflicts in the Western Church and the emergence of new canonical and theological concepts which made it more difficult to understand the ancient spiritual heritage of the East. For us today all of this is a motive of profound regret."
Pope John Paul then turned to the exhibition itself, commenting that "the objects on display in the Sala Regia - from the fragment of Noah's Ark from Echmiadzin to the archeological finds from ancient Cilicia ... are signs of the great things which God has done for the Armenian people. They are an invitation to ever deeper self-knowledge and ever greater self-esteem."

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