OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 25, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Archbishop Peter Stephan Zurbriggen, up to now apostolic nuncio in Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, as apostolic nuncio in Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, OCT 25, 2001 (VIS) - The Holy Father received today in separate audiences:

- His Majesty King Harald V of Norway, accompanied by Queen Sonja, and their entourage.
- Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Germany, and a Jubilee pilgrimage group of the "Kolping Family" International Work.

He also received the following participants of the Synod of Bishops:

- Cardinal Jan P. Schotte, C.I.C.M., secretary general, Synod of Bishops, Vatican City.
- Fr. Antonio Bravo, general director, Institute of Prado, France.
- Sr. Antonia Colombo, superior general, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Italy.
- Fr. Andrea D'Auria, F.S.C.B., professor of Canon Law, Pontifical Urban University, Rome, Italy.
- Fr. Arnaud Devillers, F.S.S.P., superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, U.S.A.
- Fr. Francois Dupre La Tour, O.S.B., professor of Theology, Abbey of Saint Joseph, France.
- Martial Assande Eba, president, parish council of Saint Jean de Cocody, diocese of Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
- Msgr. Gerhard Muller, professor of Dogmatic Theology, faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Munich, Germany.
- Maria Christina Noronha De Sa', director, Youth Pastoral Care, archdiocese of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Barbara Pandolfi, superior general, Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ, Italy.
- Anne-Marie Pelletier, professor, University Paris X and "Institute Catholique de Paris", France.
- Sr. Enrica Rosanna, F.M.A., professor of Sociology of Religion, Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences "Auxilium", Rome, Italy.
- Msgr. Dimitrios Salachas, Greece, professor of Eastern Canon Law, Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome.
- Robert Sikias, Lebanon, president emeritus, Council of the Laity, Vatican City.

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HOLY SEE RATIFIES PROTOCOLS ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD

VATICAN CITY, OCT 25, 2001 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato R. Martino, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, spoke yesterday at a press conference following the ratification of Two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child at the U.N. headquarters in New York.

He noted that "According to the most recent UNICEF report, an estimated one million children, mainly girls, are forced into the multi-billion dollar commercial sex trade every year. The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography explicitly prohibits the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and calls for legal protection against the sexual exploitation of children, the transfer of their organs, and forced labor."

Archbishop Martino then underscored that "There are presently an estimated 300,000 children under the age of 18 acting as soldiers in armed conflict situations throughout the world. We also know that in the last ten years two million children have been killed, six million have been hurt, ten million have been traumatized, and a million children have been left orphaned because of armed conflict. The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict expands the protection of children from recruitment for participation in armed conflict to the age of 18, and reinforces the prohibition of the recruitment of children under the age by armed forces distinct from the State."

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HOLY SEE ON PROMOTING, PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

VATICAN CITY, OCT 24, 2001 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, spoke yesterday before the Third Committee of the 56th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Item 115, "The Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children."

He began by noting that "Unfortunately, too many of the world's children are affected by war and conflict every day of their lives. They all bear the physical and psychological scars which might be the result of direct involvement as combatants and child soldiers or through abduction, abuse, separation from family, malnutrition, and lost educational opportunities. The same might be said for those children who are victims of exploitation or abuse. For these children unimaginable horrors are an everyday occurrence. These also suffer physical and psychological trauma which leaves scars that may never be healed."

Archbishop Martino affirmed that "the Convention on the Rights of the Child continues to guide governments in their actions regarding the well-being of children through the recognition of their dignity and the acknowledgment that 'the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including legal protection, before as well as after birth'."

He announced that, on the morning of October 24, "on behalf of the Holy See, I will deposit the instruments of ratification of the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child ... The Holy See does this ... because (it) has always recognized the fundamental importance of protecting the human rights of children and promoting their well being. This is most evident through the thousands of schools, hospitals and care centres under the auspices of the Catholic Church, as well as in the work of the Church among children who are refugees and displaced, those living in poverty or who are separated from parents or their family." Another of the ways this recognition is carried-out is certainly realized in protecting children from the atrocities of armed conflict and exploitation."

The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography explicitly prohibits the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and calls for legal protection against the sexual exploitation of children, the transfer of their organs, and forced labor.

The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict expands the protection of children from recruitment for participation in armed conflict to the age of 18, and reinforces the prohibition of the recruitment of children under (that) age by armed forces distinct from the State.

"There are many challenges in the world," Archbishop Martino concluded. "Each and every action that the United Nations system can take helps to chip away at the problems that continue to hamper the realization of the rights and assurance of the well-being of children."

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GENERAL AUDIENCE: PSALM 50, SIN AND PERSONAL CONVERSION

VATICAN CITY, OCT 24, 2001 (VIS) - In today's general audience, celebrated in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II spoke on "Psalm 50 - Have Mercy on me, O God," in which the believer expresses his desire to do penance and his hope in the mercy of God.

"Psalm 50 outlines two aspects," the Pope said. "There is first of all the dark region of sin, in which man lives from the first moment of his life." Though not speaking explicitly of original sin, it states that there is "a profound dimension of inborn moral weakness in man."

The Holy Father affirmed that "if man, however, confesses his sin, the salvific justice of God is ready to radically purify him. In this way one passes into the second spiritual region of the Psalm, the luminous region of grace. ... The Lord does not only act negatively, eliminating sin, but rather recreates sinful humanity through His enlivening Spirit: he gives man a new and pure 'heart', that is, a renewed conscience, and opens to him the possibility of a pure faith and devotion pleasing to God."

This Biblical supplication "reveals to us certain fundamental elements of a spirituality which must reverberate in the daily life of the faithful. Above all," he concluded, "there is a lively sense of sin" and "an equally lively sense of the possibility of conversion: the sinner, sincerely pentitent, presents himself in all of his misery and nakedness before God, beseeching Him not to drive him from His presence."

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