OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Werner Thissen, auxiliary of Munster, Germany, as metropolitan archbishop of Hamburg (area 33,055, population 5,769,315, Catholics 504,091, priests 240, permanent deacons 39, religious 421), Germany. The archbishop-elect was born in Kleve, Germany in 1938 and was ordained a priest in 1966.

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

- Four prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Southern Region III-IV) on their "ad limina" visit:

- Bishop Estanislau Amadeu Kreutz of Santo Angelo.

- Bishop Aloisio Sinesio Bohn of Santa Cruz do Sul.

- Bishop Thadeu Gomes Canellas of Osorio.

- Bishop Gironimo Zanandrea of Erexim.

- Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger, archbishop of Paris, France.

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APOSTOLATE FOR PARTICIPANTS IN MARITIME COMPETITIONS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2002 (VIS) - Today the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples published a communique which recalls that the 21st World Congress of the Apostleship of the Sea, promoted by the council, was celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from September 29 to October 5.

The congress examined the problems that globalization presents to seafarers and their families. to merchant navies, the fishing sector - small scale and industrial - and the leisure cruise industry.

The communique affirms that there is another category of professional seafarers that this dicastery cares for: the participants in maritime competitions such as the Vuitton Cup and America's Cup, their families, the support teams and journalists that follow them. "Today, this sector too must be reached by the Apostleship of the Sea," says the note.
For this reason, the communique continues, Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, entrusted the task of completing a study in this regard to the person in charge of the council's maritime section. The first phase of research (November-December 2002) will consist of contacting the people that can help in understanding this environment, such as parish priests and chaplains and the journalists who cover these events. The second phase will establish a dialogue at the end of the Vuitton Cup (January 2003) with the local Church, the media and support groups in order to make known the Apostleship of the Sea and its ministry among seafarers and itinerant people.

The communique concludes by affirming that the information and suggestions that are gathered in these two phases of the study will help "diocesan bishops in particular to 'determine the most suitable forms of pastoral care for maritime personnel'."

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POPE PRAYS FOR THOSE WHO SUFFER IN THE HOLY LAND AND IRAQ

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2002 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

In his speech, the Pope referred to the topics that they were considering during their meeting: the activity carried out by the dicastery in the last four years, the election of bishops in the patriarchal Churches and the state of the Eastern Churches.

Speaking about the first point, John Paul II emphasized "the congregation's priority for liturgical and catechetic renewal, as well as the formation of the different members of the People of God, staring with candidates to holy orders and consecrated life."

With respect to the procedure of the election of bishops in the patriarchal Churches, the Holy Father said: "I will be happy to take into consideration your proposals regarding the relative norms of the Code of Canon Law of the Eastern Churches. In any case, when difficulties in applying the current canon norms are made known to the Holy See, everything will be done to help overcome them with a spirit of active collaboration."

On the state of the Eastern Churches and their prospects for pastoral renewal, the Pope affirmed that he was familiar with the difficulties that the Eastern communities encounter in many places: "Few people, lack of means, isolation, and being a minority frequently impede serene and effective educational and charitable pastoral care. In addition, there is an incessant emigration of the most prepared members of your Churches to the West."

"And what is there to say," he asked, "of the suffering endured in the Holy Land and other Eastern countries, dragged into a dangerous spiral that seems humanly unstoppable? May God end this vortex of violence as soon as possible!" John Paul II appealed for peace through the intercession of Blessed John XXIII who "lived for many years in the East, and loved the Eastern Churches so much. ... May he also intercede so that these Churches do not close themselves off to the ways of the past and so that they open up to that healthy revision that he himself desired in line with the sapient harmony between 'nova et vetera'."

The Holy Father concluded by invoking Our Lady's protection for the members of the communities that extend from the Middle East to Africa and from Europe to India, "in particular for those in the Holy Land and Iraq who are going through difficult moments of great suffering."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2002 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Giuseppe Nazzaro, O.F.M., guardian of the Fraternity of St. Anthony in Damascus, Syria, as apostolic vicar of Alep of the Latins (Catholics 10,000, priests 40, religious 242), Syria, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of bishop. The bishop-elect was born in 1937 in San Potito, Italy and was ordained a priest in 1965. He succeeds Bishop Armando Bortolaso, S.D.B., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same apostolic vicariate the Holy Father accepted upon having reached the age limit.

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