AUDIENCE: THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES URGE US TO UNITY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2000 (VIS) - In today's general audience, which was held in St. Peter's Square in the presence of 35,000 people, John Paul II spoke on: "Faith, hope and charity in an ecumenical perspective."

He said that the three theological virtues, faith, hope and charity, in animating Christ's disciples, "urge them to unity," bringing them "to full communion with the Triune God and with their fellows."

The Pope recalled that St. Paul speaks of the unity of faith that "has its source in the Word of God. ... Together, Churches and ecclesial communities find reference in the ancient symbols of faith and in the definitions of the first ecumenical councils. Nonetheless, certain doctrinal differences still have to be overcome in order for the path of the unity of faith to reach its culmination."

St. Paul, continued the Pope, also speaks of a single hope that "is expressed in common commitment, through prayer and the assiduous coherence of life, for the advent of the Kingdom of God. ... The ecumenical movement is oriented towards fundamental and intertwined goals, as the objectives of a single hope: unity of the Church, evangelization of the world, liberation and peace of the human community."

"At the pinnacle of the three theological virtues, there is love," affirmed the Holy Father. The "inexhaustible source of charity is the Eucharist. ... 'Due to disagreements in matters of faith, it is not yet possible to celebrate together the same Eucharistic liturgy. And yet we do have a burning desire to join in celebrating the one Eucharist of the Lord, and this desire itself is already a common prayer of praise, a single supplication.' ... Thus we must put all our hope 'in the prayer of Christ for the Church, in the love of the Father for us, and in the power of the Holy Spirit'."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

- Fr. Jorge Luis Lona, pastor of the cathedral of San Juan de Cuyo, Argentina, and episcopal vicar for education, as coadjutor bishop of San Luis (area 70,000, population 345,000, Catholics 322,000, priests 64, religious 91), Argentina. The bishop-elect was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1935 and ordained a priest in 1979.

- Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, substitute for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, as consultor of the Congregation for Bishops.

- Archbishops Ivan Dias of Bombay, India, and William Joseph Levada of San Francisco, U.S.A., as members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

- Msgr. Brian Edwin Ferme and Fr. Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru as judges of the ecclesiastic tribunal of Vatican City State.

- Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Carlo Maria Martini S.J., archbishop of Milan, as honorary academicians of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience Cardinal James Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and Bishop Stanislaw Rylko, secretary of the same council.

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POPE DECRIES USURY, "THE EXPLOITATIONS OF NEEDS OF OTHERS"

VATICAN CITY, NOV 22, 2000 (VIS) - Pope John Paul II, at the end of today's general audience held in St. Peter's Square, greeted the 35,000 pilgrims present in numerous languages including French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Czech, Croatian, Slovakian and Slovenian.

In greeting Italian-language pilgrims, the Pope welcomed "with affection the members of the National Council of Anti-usury Foundations and the delegations of the various regional foundations who have come to sensitize everyone about the worrisome phenomenon of usury and its dramatic social implications. Dear friends, the Pope is close to you and encourages you to continue in your generous commitment to fight this merciless exploitation of the needs of others.
"Usury is a spreading social plague and it is absolutely necessary to come to the assistance of those who find themselves involved in this network of injustice and serious sufferings. I hope with all my heart that, in the context of the Jubilee Year, thanks to everyone's contribution, concrete steps may be undertaken to eliminate this great social scourge."

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COUNCIL DOCUMENT ON "FAMILY, MARRIAGE, 'DE FACTO' UNIONS"

VATICAN CITY, NOV 21, 2000 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for the Family today published in English, French, Spanish and Italian a document entitled "Family, Marriage and 'de facto' Unions." In addition it released a communique signed by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo and Bishop Francisco Gil Hellin, respectively president and secretary of the council, in which they present and describe the 79-page document.

Following are excerpts from that communique:

"In recent years we have witnessed repeated attempts to confer legal validity on 'de facto' unions: These unions ignore or even refuse the very institution of marriage or at least defer it to an uncertain future. In doing so, these unions are not included in and protected by marriage law and, therefore, a pretended comparison involves a juridical hollowing out of the marriage institution. In fact, a number of times the same validity for unions of coexistence between two persons of the same sex has been requested, even with the possibility of being able to adopt children. One and the other ask to receive the same rights as the family founded on marriage. Pope John Paul II, ... in his historical speech to politicians and parliamentarians on November 4, 2000, repeated what he has said in the past: 'Every law which damages the family and attacks its unity and indissolubility or gives legal validity to unions among persons, even of the same sex, which asks to be a surrogate with the same rights as the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman 'is not a law in conformity with the divine plan'.'

"Aware of the serious repercussions involved in this situation of human and Christian incoherence for society and the Church, the Pontifical Council for the Family felt it was opportune to examine deeply and attentively such a delicate question. ... The fruit of this initiative, after laborious studies, is the document "Family, Marriage and 'de facto' Unions" which we now present.

"In this document, after examining the social aspect of 'de facto' unions, their constitutive elements and the motives behind them, we then face the problem of their recognition and their juridical equalization in the first place with the family founded on marriage. Then, we take into consideration the family as a social good, the objective values to encourage and the duties that society should justly protect and promote, caring for its root, which is marriage. Following this we study more deeply several aspects which this claim presents in relation to Christian marriage. In addition, several general criteria of pastoral discernment, necessary for furnishing an orientation to Christian communities, are laid out."

"The Pope, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Families on October 14, affirmed that what is necessary is a commitment to defend 'the value of the family and respect for human life, from the very moment of conception. It is a question of values which belong to the basic 'grammar' of dialogue and human coexistence among peoples. I truly hope that governments and national parliaments as well as international organizations, and the United Nations in particular, will not lose sight of this truth'."

"Pastors, who very often in their ministry find themselves welcoming and guiding persons who are living such problems, will surely receive in this document opportune orientations for their pastoral activity."

"We hope that these pages will also be a useful instrument for politicians and legislators. As the Holy Father has affirmed: 'No human society can run the risk of permissiveness on the basic questions concerning the essence of marriage and the family! A similar moral permissiveness can only bring harm to the authentic exigencies of peace and communion among men. ... It is therefore urgent ... to rediscover the existence of essential and native human and moral values, ... values, therefore, which no individual, no majority and no State can ever create, modify or destroy, but can only recognize, respect and promote'."

"In the face of any law which attempts to give legal validity to unions among persons, even of the same sex, which asks to be a surrogate with the same rights as the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, 'Christian legislators may neither contribute to the formulation of such a law nor approve it in parliamentary assembly, although, where such a law already exists, it is licit for them to propose amendments which would diminish its adverse effects'. This is a question of unjust laws which are not in conformity with the divine plan."

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