AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, MAY 13, 2003 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience five prelates of the Syro-Malankara rite from India on their "ad limina" visit:

- Bishop Geevarghese Divannasios Ottathengil of Battery.

- Bishop Yoohanon Chrysostom Kalloor of Marthandom.
- Bishop Thomas Koorilos Chakkalapadickal, eparch of Muvattapuzha.

- Bishop Geevarghese Timotheos Chundevalel, emeritus of Tiruvalla, accompanied by Msgr. Stephen Thottathil, diocesan administrator.

AL;...;...;...;VIS;20030513;Word: 60;

DEVELOPMENT CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY, HARMONY AND JUSTICE

VATICAN CITY, MAY 13, 2003 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is in Cotonou, Benin where he spoke this morning at the opening of a conference entitled "Political Stability and Development: The Contribution of the Social Doctrine of the Church." His talk focussed on "The Catholic Church's Concern for Development, Justice and Peace." The three-day meeting was organized by the Adenauer Foundation and by the Institute of Artisans of Justice and Peace of Cotonou.

According to a communique published by the council, Archbishop Martino noted that "development cannot be built on conflicts, discrimination, rancor, exclusion, nor on the force of arms. It calls for agreement, solidarity, the joining of efforts, attention to one's neighbor, justice amd respect for the dignity of the person and of his rights."

He also spoke of the serious problem of the causes of the conflicts which have covered the African continent with blood, stating that one of these causes lies in the greed for the resources that are so abundant in the African soil and subsoil. "Such riches are coveted by interest groups that exploit the breadth and the permanent nature of the conflicts for dirty commerce, paying bribes to the leaders of producing countries. There is need for greater solidarity, greater justice, greater participation in the administration of these resources." Another cause, he said, is exclusion which takes the form of ethnic discrimination and racial hatred.

The archbishop also pointed to the question of international debt, saying that there is a need for the sums that have been freed up by the remission of debt to be invested in priority sectors such as health, education and other social services.

CON-IP;DEVELOPMENT;...;BENIN; MARTINO;VIS;20030513;Word: 290;

BISHOPS FROM EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA TRAVEL TO COLOMBIA

VATICAN CITY, MAY 13, 2003 (VIS) - A delegation of representatives from the episcopal conferences of Italy, Spain, France, Austria, Switzerland and the United States of America, headed by Archbishop Paul J. Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," is visiting Colombia from May 12 to 19 to deliver a message from the Holy Father.

During their stay, according to a communique made public today, the delegation will meet with representatives from the Episcopal Conference of Colombia as well as with Alvaro Uribe Velez, president of the republic, Michael Fruling, the United Nations representative for human rights in Colombia and representatives of the U. N. High Commissioner for Refugees. On Saturday May 17 there will be a special Eucharistic celebration in Bojaya in memory of the victims of the massacre in the Church of Bella Vista which occurred one year ago.

"The indications of the Holy Father on the building of a civilization of love and above all cooperation among institutions of the State and Church in order to combat injustice, poverty, violence, will comprise," the communique concludes, "the two main themes that the bishops will address in the different meetings."

...;VISIT COLOMBIA BISHOPS;...;CORDES;VIS;20030513;Word: 200;

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAY 13, 2003 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

- Msgr. Francesco Di Muzio, of the personal prelature of Opus Dei, as bureau chief of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

- Fr. Volodymyr Viytyshyn, dean of Tlumach, bursar and judicial vicar of the eparchy of Kolomyia-Chernivtsi (area, 14,095, population 1,384,500, Catholics 240,960, priests 188, religious 2) Ukraine, as coadjutor bishop of the same ecclesial circumscription. The bishop-elect was born in Demydivka, Ukraine in 1959, studied clandestinely for the priesthood and was ordained clandestinely in 1982.

NA; NEA;...;...;DI MUZIO; VIYTYSHYN;VIS;20030513;Word: 100;

SYLVESTER II, THE POPE OF THE SECOND MILLENNIUM

VATICAN CITY, MAY 10, 2003 (VIS) - The Holy Father this morning welcomed Bishop Rene Sejour of Saint-Flour, France and a delegation of diocesan pilgrims who are in Rome to celebrate the millennium of the death of Pope Sylvester II, who died on May 12, 1003.

Calling Sylvester II "the Pope of the Year 1000" and "the most cultured man of his time," John Paul II underscored that "Gerbert d'Aurillac dominated his century in a singular way by his knowledge and his erudition, his moral uprightness and his spiritual sense. He was at one and the same time an intellectual and a man of action, a diplomat and a man of the Church. If today's questions are different from those he had to face, his spiritual and intellectual attitude remains a call to seek human truth, which is never opposed to the truths of faith. 'Always unite,' he used to say, 'science and faith'."

The Pope noted that Sylvester II belonged to the Benedictine Order "whose different houses contributed to fashioning Europe. Archbishop of Reims, then of Ravenna, in 999 he became the first Pope of French origin. ... In the year 1000 he created in Gniezno the first metropolitan Church in Poland, among whose suffragans was the diocese of Krakow where I was pastor."

"Gerbert contributed to the intellectual renaissance and vitality of the continent," noted the Holy Father. "His example helps us to understand that Europe can only be built if it assumes, with lucidity, its Christian roots, ... an essential dimension of its identity, having left their imprint on the cultural, artistic, juridical and philosophical production of the continent."

AC;POPE SYLVESTER II;...;...;VIS;20030512;Word: 280;