50 MILLION REFUGEES, DISPLACED PERSONS CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE

VATICAN CITY, NOV 17, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations, Archbishop Renato Martino, spoke before the Third Committee of the 54th session of the U.N.'s General Assembly yesterday on Item 111, Report of the UNHCR, Questions Relating to Refugees, Returnees, Displaced Persons and Humanitarian Questions.

"Uprooted, humiliated, deprived of dignity and identity," he said, "millions stand in unfamiliar surroundings calling for help. There is no security for their lives, no guarantee for their future and hopes for a safe return home vanish with time. These catastrophes are willed, prepared and executed by men against fellow men, against women, children and older persons, against the sick and dying."

Archbishop Martino focussed on the urgent need to create "an effective legal instrument to protect internally displaced persons." He said that "the question of refugees and displaced persons, who have every right to lead a normal life is ... a matter of conscience. Almost fifty million of them appeal to the conscience of the international community, not begging for mercy, but crying for justice."

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CARDINAL SODANO TO ATTEND OSCE MEETING

VATICAN CITY, NOV 17, 1999 (VIS) - At midday today, Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration:

"On November 18 and 19 in Istanbul, Turkey, a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be held at the level of heads of State and Government."

"Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano will attend the meeting on behalf of the Holy See. He will be accompanied by Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, secretary for Relations with States; Archbishop Luigi Conti, apostolic nuncio in Turkey and Msgr. Dominique Rezeau, permanent representative to the OSCE in Vienna.

"During his stay in Istanbul, Cardinal Sodano will meet the local Catholic community and the ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 17, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Bishop Joao Maria Messi O.S.M., of Irece, Brazil, as bishop of Barra do Pirai-Volta Redonda (area 4,768, population 827,986, Catholics 620,989, priests 38, permanent deacons 2, religious 121), Brazil. He succeeds Bishop Waldyr Calheiros de Novaes, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Fr. Jose Ubiratan Lopes O.F.M. Cap., pastor of 'Nossa Senhora Aparecida' parish in the diocese of Petropolis, Brazil, as bishop of Itaguai (area 2,549, population 279,000, Catholics 189,200, priests 24, permanent deacons 1, religious 66), Brazil. The bishop-elect was born in Itambacuri, Brazil, in 1947 and ordained a priest in 1975.

- Appointed Fr. Donald Joseph Leo Pelletier M.S., diocesan administrator of Morondava (area 46,000, population 350,000, Catholics 35,000, priests 22, religious 56), Madagascar, as bishop of the same ecclesiastical circumscription. The bishop-elect was born in Attleboro, U.S.A., in 1931 and ordained a priest in 1956.

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MESSAGE FOR ITALIAN CATHOLICS' SOCIAL WEEK

VATICAN CITY, NOV 16, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was a message from the Pope to participants in the 43rd Social Week of Italian Catholics, being held in Naples from November 16 to 20. The theme of the encounter is "Civil society in the Italy of tomorrow."

In the message, dated November 10, the Holy Father writes: "Wherever the State recognizes the existence of those cultural and associative resources, distinct from the political and economic fields, resources that possess an innovative organizational capacity that aims to support harmonious coexistence, then the way is open to constructive pursuit of the common good."

John Paul II emphasizes the fact that "the State must create the conditions favorable for the free exercise of economic activity (and that) a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help it to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society."

Making reference to the family, the Pope underlines that it "is the heart of society. ... Founded on matrimony, it represents stable continuity, a sanctuary of love and life, the essential cell of the social organism. It is on the 'health' of the family that the health of society depends."

The Holy Father concludes: "The future of society rests above all on the young. It is in the education of young generations that the religious experience of the Italian nation can boast a creative brilliance in its scholastic institutions, in large measure intended for those who are less well off. This merits respect and support through juridical and economic parity between state and non state schools."

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JOHN PAUL II VISITS "POPE'S UNIVERSITY"

VATICAN CITY, NOV 16, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father this morning visited the Pontifical Lateran University, where, in the course of a 90-minute visit, he inaugurated the academic year and blessed the university's new atrium and other new or restored halls.

In his talk to the chancellor, rector, teachers and students of the Lateran, in addition to invited guests from other ecclesiastical and state-run universities, the Pope said that "in the modern era, the Illuminist reform of the university wished to answer the basic questions about man and his destiny, leaving Revelation out of consideration. In many cases theology saw itself expelled, so to speak, from the academic institutions, after having been at their center for centuries."

"In the current context, nevertheless, the re-dimensioning of the exclusivist pretexts of reason and the well-known aridness of agnostic relativism seem to place once again the research on the integrality of 'humanum' at the center of the attention of universities."

The Holy Father remarked that "as legitimate heirs of the academic tradition of medieval schools, 'ecclesiastical' universities are called to become protagonists of this re-awakening."

He highlighted the faculties and institutes which are part of the Lateran University. The theology faculty, he said, "is called to take on the constant tension of the 'intellectus fidei' and to penetrate ever more deeply the mystery of God and to propose it in the 'language' of the current generation.

"The philosophy faculty has to deal with, on the one hand, the continual development of the sciences of nature and man and, on the other, with the disappearance of a higher level of reflection."

The Holy Father then made brief remarks on the Pontifical Utriusque Iuris Institute and its study of civil and ecclesiastical law, the Redemptor Hominis Pontifical Pastoral Institute, dedicated to the social doctrine of the Church, and the John Paul II Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.

In closing remarks, John Paul II reminded the faculty and students that the Lateran university "has the honor and burden of having the special title of 'the Pope's university'. Always take to heart the creative and dynamic unity between faith and 'intellectus fidei'."

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