OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2004 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Carlo Ellena, "fidei donum" priest of the archdiocese of Turin, Italy and executive secretary of the "Northeast 5" of the Episcopal Conference of Brazil, as bishop of Ze Doca (area 40,000, population 300,000, Catholics 260,000, priests 20, religious 31), Brazil. The bishop-elect was born in Valperga, Italy in 1938 and was ordained a priest in 1962.
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HOLINESS, LIVING THE GOSPEL COHERENTLY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2004 (VIS) - During today's general audience, in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 9,000 faithful and of a group of bishops, friends of the Focolare movement who are meeting in Rome, the Holy Father greeted the bishops and presented them with a Message for their annual meeting. The foundress of the Focolare Movement, Chiara Lubich, was also present at today's audience.

Noting that their encounter is centered on the theme of holiness, the Pope told the bishops that "Vatican Council II reminded us that holiness is the vocation of every baptized person. . In fact, only a Christian community shining with holiness can efficaciously fulfill the mission entrusted to it by Christ, that is, to spread the Gospel to the far ends of the earth."

"The universal character of the Church's vocation to holiness," he went on, "is a truth that represents one of the pillars of the conciliar constitution

'Lumen Gentium'. Two general aspects should be underlined here. Above all the fact that the Church is intimately holy and is called to live and to manifest that holiness in every one of its members. In the second place, the expression 'holiness of people', makes us think of ordinariness, that is of the need for the baptized to know how to live the Gospel coherently in every day life: in the family, in one's work, in every relation and occupation. It is precisely in the ordinary that one must live the extraordinary."
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, FEB 17, 2004 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

- Bishop Gerard Daucourt of Nanterre on his "ad limina" visit.

- Fouad Aoun, ambassador of Lebanon, on his farewell visit.

- Archbishop Alfons Nossol of Opole, Poland, with a delegation from the University of Opole.
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POPE TO PRESIDE AT ASH WEDNESDAY CELEBRATION

VATICAN CITY, FEB 17, 2004 (VIS) - On February 25, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and a day of fasting, the Holy Father will preside at 10:30 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica at the celebration of the Word, during which he will bless and distribute ashes, according to the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

The celebration will include the rite of introduction, the liturgy of the Word and a homily by the Holy Father, the blessing and imposition of ashes, the prayers of the faithful, the prayer of the Lord, and the concluding rite.
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POLISH UNIVERSITY CONFERS DOCTORATE ON POPE JOHN PAUL

VATICAN CITY, FEB 17, 2004 (VIS) - Twenty representatives of the University of Opole, Poland, who are in Rome to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its founding, were welcomed by the Pope today upon whom they conferred an honoris causa doctorate. The Pope recalled that ten years ago he consented to the institution of the Theology Faculty within the structure of a state university, knowing that "the birth of this athenaeum was very important for Opole."

"I thank God," he said, "for the fact that the University cooperates with the Church in the work of integration of society in Opole. . If we speak of integration of society, we do not mean this in the sense of the canceling of differences, of the unification of the way of thinking, of forgetting history - often marked by events that created divisions - but rather as a continuing search for those values that are common among men, that have different roots, a different story and, as a result, their own vision of the world and references to the societies they are living in."

"Today," the Holy Father stressed, "we speak of the Christian roots of Europe. If one sign of these are the cathedrals, the works of art, music and literature, they in a certain sense speak in silence. Universities, however, can speak out loud. . Yes, this voice might not be received by those who have been deafened by the ideology of the secularism of our continent but this does not release men of science . from the duty of giving witness . to that science and knowledge which grew in the fertile terrain of Christianity."
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