OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 10, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Speyer, Germany, presented by Bishop Anton Schlembach, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Bishop Dionisio Guillermo Garcia Ibanez of Santisimo Salvador de Bayamo y Manzanillo, Cuba, as metropolitan archbishop of Santiago de Cuba (area 6,043, population 1,017,785, Catholics 242,378, priests 20, permanent deacons 3, religious 53), Cuba. The archbishop-elect was born in Guantanamo, Cuba in 1945, he was ordained a priest in 1985, and consecrated a bishop in 1996. He succeeds Archbishop Pedro Claro Meurice Estiu, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Elevated the apostolic prefecture of Nepal (area 147,181, population 23,700,000, Catholics 6,681, priests 51, religious 112), Nepal to the rank of apostolic vicariate, with the same name and territorial boundaries. He appointed Fr. Anthony Francis Sharma S.J., apostolic prefect of Nepal, as the first apostolic vicar of the new apostolic vicariate, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of bishop. The bishop-elect was born in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1937 and ordained a priest in 1968.

 - Confirmed the election, carried out by the Synod of Bishops of the Syro-Malankar Church, meeting on February 8, 2007, of Archbishop Issac Cleemis Thottunkal of Tiruvalla, India as major archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars (area 8,684, population 8,657,000, Catholics 270,000, priests 300, religious 1,056), India.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 9, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Luis Tineo Rivera of the clergy of the archdiocese of Caracas, Venezuela, pastor of the parish of "la Anunciacion del Senor" and director of the diocesan weekly "la Iglesia Ahora," as auxiliary of the same archdiocese (area 790, population 4,760,000, Catholics 3,465,000, priests 545, permanent deacons 13, religious 1,941). The bishop-elect was born in Cumana, Venezuela in 1948 and ordained a priest in 1980.
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, FEB 9, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

 - Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.

 - Archbishop Faustino Sainz Munoz, apostolic nuncio to Great Britain.

 - Archbishop Vincenzo Pelvi, military ordinary for Italy, on his "ad limina" visit.

 - Msgr. Michael W. Banach, Holy See permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (AIEA), to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and to the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), and Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations Organization for Industrial Development (ONUDI), and to the Office of the United Nations in Vienna, Austria.

  This evening, he is scheduled to receive in audience Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
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PROMOTING FULL EMPLOYMENT AND DECENT WORK FOR ALL

VATICAN CITY, FEB 9, 2007 (VIS) - Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations in New York, delivered a talk before the 45th session of the Commission for Social Development of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, on "Item 3 (a): Priority Theme: promoting full employment and decent work for all."

  In his English-language address, Archbishop Migliore expressed the view that "it falls to the international community and governments to ensure both an enabling economic environment and the availability of work which is decent and properly remunerated."

  "The equality of women and men should be evident also in their treatment in the workplace, in salaries and in the acquisition of pensions. ... It is also important that men and women with families receive adequate and fair wages that are sufficient to meet ordinary family needs, especially in view of their responsibilities towards their children."

  The permanent observer stressed that "the extreme poor should ... be the particular concern of every government and every civilized society."

  On the subject of the elderly, Archbishop Migliore called for "greater flexibility in pension systems and job markets so as to encourage the aged to contribute what they can to society for as long as they are willing and able."

  Concluding his address by considering the question of migrants, the archbishop pointed out how "they are often motivated by the simple wish to work in order to support their families. They too deserve equal pay and equal protection under the law, not least because the jobs they do are often the ones that no one else wants. ... Too often a lack of normal family life leads to evils such as human trafficking and prostitution on the margins of migrant communities.
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NEW PROJECT TO COMBAT PANDEMIC DISEASES

VATICAN CITY, FEB 9, 2007 (VIS) - The Pope today received finance ministers from Italy, United Kingdom, Canada and Russia, for the presentation of the "Advance Market Commitment" project. The ministers were accompanied by Queen Rania of Jordan and by Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank.

  Addressing them in English, the Holy Father said that the new project aims "at developing and producing vaccines against pandemic diseases, and making them available to poorer countries. ... [It] is meant to help resolve one of the most pressing challenges in preventative healthcare, one which particularly affects nations already suffering from poverty and serious needs."

  "I wholeheartedly encourage your efforts for this new program and its goal of advancing scientific research directed to the discovery of new vaccines. Such vaccines are urgently needed to prevent millions of human beings, including countless children, from dying each year of infectious diseases, especially in those areas of our world at greatest risk.

  "In this era of globalized markets," Benedict XVI added, "we are all concerned about the growing gap between the standard of living in countries enjoying great wealth and a high level of technological development, and that of underdeveloped countries where poverty persists and is even increasing."

  "I assure you of the Holy See's full support of this humanitarian project, which is inspired by that spirit of human solidarity which our world needs in order to overcome every form of selfishness and to foster the peaceful coexistence of peoples. As I said in my Message for this year's World Day of Peace, every service rendered to the poor is a service rendered to peace, for 'at the origin of many tensions that threaten peace are surely the many unjust inequalities still tragically present in our world'."
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