CATHOLIC SCOUTS FROM EUROPE TO MEET POPE ON AUGUST 1

VATICAN CITY, JUL 24, 2007 (VIS) - August 1 will mark the centenary of the opening of the first ever scout camp, organized on Brownsea Island, United Kingdom, by Lord Baden-Powell (1857-1941), founder of the World Scout Movement.

  For this occasion, thousands of Catholic scouts and guides from all over Europe will meet with Benedict XVI on Wednesday, August 1, during the general audience which is due to be held in the Vatican.

  In a Letter to mark the centenary of the Scout Movement, addressed to Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux and president of the Conference of Bishops of France, and published on July 2, the Holy Father recalls the founder of Catholic Scouts, Fr. Jacques Sevin S.J. and gives thanks to God "for all the fruits which, over this century, the Scout Movement has brought."

  The Pope also encourages Catholic scouts and guides to continue their journey, offering "young people today an education that forms strong personalities, rooted in Christ and desirous of living exalted ideals of faith and human solidarity."
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BENEDICT XVI: "NEVER AGAIN WAR!"

VATICAN CITY, JUL 22, 2007 (VIS) - On Sunday, before praying the Angelus in Piazza Calvi of Lorenzago di Cadore where he is spending a brief vacation period, the Holy Father addressed the thousands present there:

  Benedict XVI said that in these days of rest he felt "even more intensely" the impact of the news that he received on "the bloody confrontations and episodes of violence happening in many parts of the world. This brings me once more to reflect on the drama of human freedom in the world."

  The earth, he said, is "a garden" that God entrusted humans with to "care for and cultivate" and that "if men and women live in peace with God and among themselves then the world will truly be a 'paradise'."

  "Unfortunately, sin has ruined the divine plan, engendering division and causing death to enter into the world. In this way, persons give into the temptations of Evil and make war. The consequence is that areas of 'hell' have been opened in this stupendous 'garden' of the world."

  While emphasizing that war is a "calamity", the Pope recalled that on 1 August 1917 - 90 years ago - Pope Benedict XV called for an end to the First World War and "had the courage to assert that that conflict was 'a pointless carnage'. This expression has been recorded in history. (...) Those words also have a greater, prophetic, meaning and can be applied to many other conflicts that have ripped apart innumerable human lives."

  The Holy Father recalled how his predecessor also spoke of "the paths to building a just and lasting peace: the moral force of law, controlled disarmament, the arbitration of controversies, the freedom of the seas, the mutual condemnation of the costs of war, the restitution of occupied territories, and just negotiation in the resolution of disputes."

  "The Holy See's proposal was oriented toward the future of Europe and the world according to a plan of Christian inspiration that, however, could be shared by all as it was rooted in human rights. This is the same approach that the servants of God Paul VI and John Paul II followed in their memorable addresses to the assembly of the United Nations, repeating in the Church's name: "Never again war!".

  "From this peaceful place in which the horrors of 'pointless carnage' are felt even more forcefully as unacceptable, I renew the call to more tenaciously adhere to the law, to vehemently refuse the arms race and the temptation to face new situations with old systems."

  Concluding the Angelus, the Pope greeted the religious and civil authorities present and the brother of Pope John Paul I, Edoardo Luciani, 91 years, a native of the diocese of Belluno, who sponsored today's meeting.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 21, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Accepted the resignation of the office of the territorial prelature of Moyobamba, Peru, presented by Bishop Jose Santos Iztueta Mendizabal, C.P., upon having reached the age limit. He is succeeded by Bishop Rafael Escudero Lopez-Brea, previously coadjutor bishop of the same prelature.

- Appointed Msgr. Armando Trasarti, previously Vicar General of the archdiocese of Fermo, Italy, as bishop of the diocese of Fano-Fossombrone-Cagli-Pergola (area 1,100, population 128,916, Catholics 126,064, priests 142, permanent deacons 13, religious 209), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in 1948 in Campofilone, Italy and was ordained a priest in 1974. He succeeds Bishop Vittorio Tomassetti  whose resignation for the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
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POPE: POPULAR CULTURE, JOY OF EUROPEAN IDENTITY

VATICAN CITY, JUL 21, 2007 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, at the end of a concert of mountain choirs offered in his honor by the diocese of Belluno-Feltre at the castle of Mirabello (Italy), the Holy Father gave a short address.

  "Song is an expression of love", the Holy Father said, citing St. Augustine. " I have heard this great love for the earth (...) that the Lord has given us in your songs. In this thanksgiving, in this love for the earth, there is also present and resounding our love for the Creator, the love of God who has given us this land, this life of joy (...) that we see even more clearly in light of our faith, which tells us that God loves us."

  "The popular culture evident in such an elevated form is a joy of our European identity that we should cultivate and promote (...) Training in song, in choral singing, is not only an exercise of external hearing and the voice; it is also an education of the inner hearing, of the heart's hearing, an exercise and training in life and peace. In order to sing together it is necessary to pay attention to the other (...) to the totality that we call music and culture and, in this way, singing in a choir is an education in life and peace. It is a walking together."

  The Holy Father then commented on the words of the bishop of Belluno-Feltre who had recalled that 90 years ago the area's mountain regions were a site of the First World War. "Let us give thanks to God for the peace of our Europe today," concluded Benedict XVI, "and do everything in our power to make peace grow in us and in our world."
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POPE EXPRESSES JOY FOR LIBERATION OF ITALIAN MISSIONARY

VATICAN CITY, JUL 20, 2007 (VIS) - Yesterday evening the pope expressed his joy on the liberation of the fifty-seven year old Italian missionary Giancarlo Bossi, abducted June 10 on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

  The release yesterday of Fr. Bossi of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), said the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., "brings great joy to the entire Church and also for the Holy Father".

  Upon arriving at the Italian alpine region of Lorenzago di Cadore this past July 9 for a brief period of rest, Benedict XVI communicated that he was following the situation closely, praying each and every day for the release of the priest abducted in the Philippines.

  "It seems", said Fr. Lombardi, "that our prayers have been answered. We now hope that Fr. Bossi may tranquilly return to his missionary duties and that there be no further abductions or other episodes of violence in the region."
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