POPE APPEALS FOR RELEASE OF ARCHBISHOP OF MOSSUL

VATICAN CITY, 1 MAR 2008 (VIS) - The Holy See Press Office released the following communique late yesterday afternoon:

  "The Holy Father Benedict XVI was immediately informed of the kidnapping of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mossul of the Chaldeans, Iraq, which took place yesterday afternoon during an attack in which the prelate's two bodyguards and his driver were killed. Archbishop Rahho had just completed the Way of the Cross, a religious rite which the faithful in Iraq hold very dear. This suggests that the criminal action was premeditated.

  "Saddened by this latest deplorable act, which is a powerful blow to the whole Church in the country and especially the Chaldean Church, the Pope feels close to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, and to the entire sorely-tired Christian community, as well as to the relatives of the victims. The Supreme Pontiff invites the Universal Church to join his fervent prayer that reason and humanity may prevail in the perpetrators of the kidnapping and that Archbishop Rahho may be returned as soon as possible to his flock. He also renews his hope that the Iraqi people rediscover the path to reconciliation and peace".

  For his part Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, who is currently visiting Amman, Jordan, has made an urgent appeal for the immediate release of the Iraqi prelate.

  During a Eucharistic celebration held on 29 February in the Church of St. Mary of Nazareth in the Latin Vicariate of the Jordanian capital, the cardinal expressed his own closeness to and solidarity with the Catholic community in Iraq.
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HOLY FATHER TO CANONISE FOUR BLESSEDS ON 12 OCTOBER

VATICAN CITY, 1 MAR 2008 (VIS) - During the ordinary public consistory held this morning in the Vatican, Benedict XVI declared that the following Blesseds will be canonised in a ceremony to be held on Sunday 12 October: Gaetano Errico, Maria Bernarda Butler (nee Verena), Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception (nee: Anna Muttathupandathu), and Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran.

  A number of cardinals then expressed to the Pope their desire to pass from the order of deacons to the order of priests. The College of Cardinals is divided into three orders: of bishops, of priests and of deacons. Cardinals in the order of bishops are each assigned one of the seven suburbicarian churches or suffragan dioceses (Ostia, Albano, Frascati, Palestrina, Porto-Santa Rufina, Sabina-Poggio Mirteto, Velletri); cardinal patriarchs of Eastern Catholic Churches are also members of the order of bishops. Cardinals of the order of priests receive a title or church within the city of Rome; the order of priests includes cardinal diocesan archbishops and bishops, as well as others. The order of deacons includes cardinals who are not diocesan bishops.

  At the request of Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, the diaconate of San Saba has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

  At the request of Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, the diaconate of the Most Holy Name of Mary at the Forum of Trajan has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

  At the request of Cardinal Lorenzo Antonetti, the diaconate of St. Agnes in Agone has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

  At his request, Cardinal James Francis Stafford has relinquished the diaconate of Jesus the Good Shepherd at Montagnola and been assigned the presbyteral title of San Pietro in Montorio.

  At the request of Cardinal Giovanni Cheli, the diaconate of Sts. Cosmas and Damian has been elevated "pro hac vice" to presbyteral title and assigned to the same cardinal.

  Finally, in the wake of Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos' move to the order of priests, the Holy Father confirmed Cardinal Agostino Caccavillan, deacon of Holy Guardian Angels at Citta Giardino, in the office of proto-deacon.
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YOUNG PEOPLE: WITNESSES TO THE GOSPEL, BUILDERS OF PEACE

VATICAN CITY, 1 MAR 2008 (VIS) - A prayer vigil was held in the Paul VI Hall at 5 p.m. today for the occasion of the sixth European Day for Universities. The initiative has been being promoted by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) and the vicariate of Rome's office for pastoral care in universities on the theme: "Europe and the Americas together to build a civilisation of love".

  During the gathering there were satellite linkups with university students in the cities of Naples, Italy; Bucharest, Romania; Toledo, Spain; Avignon, France; Minsk, Belarus; Washington DC, U.S.A.; Mexico City, Mexico; Havana, Cuba, Aparecida, Brazil, and Loja, Ecuador.

  At 6 p.m. the Holy Father arrived to pray the Rosary. He then extended greetings in various languages, both to the young people present in the Paul VI Hall and to those following events from the European and American cities.

  "Christianity", said the Pope, "is a profound and powerful link between the so-called old continent and what has been called the 'new world'". In this context he recalled "the fundamental position that Holy Scripture and Christian liturgy occupy in the culture and art of European and American peoples.

  "Unfortunately", he added, "so-called 'western civilisation' has also partly betrayed its Gospel inspiration. What is needed, then, is an honest and sincere reflection, an examination of conscience. It is necessary to discern between what serves to build the 'civilisation of love' according to the design that God revealed in Jesus Christ, and what runs counter to it".

  Addressing young Europeans and Americans, Benedict XVI said: "God calls you to co-operate, alongside your peers all over the world, so that the lifeblood of the Gospel may renew the civilisation of these two continents and of humanity entire.

  "The great European and American cities are becoming more and more cosmopolitan, but they often lack this lifeblood, which is capable of ensuring that differences do not become the cause of division and conflict but of mutual enrichment.

  "The civilisation of love", said the Pope, "is 'conviviality', in other words a respectful and peaceful coexistence that finds joy in its differences in the name of a shared vision which the Blessed Pope John XXIII founded on the four columns of love, truth, freedom and justice".

  He went on: "This, dear friends, is the duty I consign to you today: be disciples of and witnesses to the Gospel, because the Gospel is the good seed of the Kingdom of God, in other words the civilisation of love! Be builders of peace and of unity!"

  The Holy Father concluded his remarks by identifying one "sign of this Catholic unity" in the initiative of giving each of the students present a CD copy of his recent Encyclical "Spe salvi" in five languages.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 1 MAR 2008 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, presented by Archbishop Francois Marie-Wolff Ligonde, upon having reached the age limit. He is succeeded by Coadjutor Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, apostolic administrator "sede plena" of the same archdiocese.

 - Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Port-de-Paix, Haiti, presented by Bishop Frantz Colimon S.M.M., in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law. He is succeeded by Coadjutor Bishop Pierre-Antoine Paulo O.M.I.

- Appointed Bishop Louis Kebreau S.D.B. of Hinche, Haiti, as metropolitan archbishop of Cap-Haitien (area 2,200, population 1,463,520, Catholics 778,110, priests 72, religious 135), Haiti. The archbishop-elect was born in Jeremie, Haiti in 1938, he was ordained a priest in 1974 and consecrated a bishop in 1987. He succeeds Archbishop Hubert Constant O.M.I., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Msgr. Leon Kalenga Badikebele, nunciature counsellor in the apostolic nunciature to Japan, as apostolic nuncio to Ghana, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in Kamina, Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1956 and ordained a priest in 1982.

 - Appointed Daniele Dalvai as counsellor of Vatican City State.

 - Appointed Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, as his special envoy to celebrations marking the New Christian Millennium in Ethiopia, due to be held in Addis Ababa from 2 to 4 May on the occasion of the Ethiopian National Eucharistic Congress.
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IN HEALING MAN JESUS ACHIEVES A NEW CREATION

VATICAN CITY, 2 MAR 2008 (VIS) - At midday today, Benedict XVI appeared at the window of his study to pray the Angelus with pilgrims in St. Peter's Square.

  The Sunday liturgies of Lent, the Pope remarked "take us on a true Baptismal journey". If last Sunday Jesus promised the Samaritan woman the gift of "living water", today with the healing of the blind man He shows Himself as "light of the world" and next Sunday, with the raising of Lazarus, as "the resurrection and the life".

  He continued: "Water, light and life are symbols of Baptism, the Sacrament that 'immerses' believers in the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ, freeing them from the slavery of sin and giving them eternal life".

  The Pope noted how in today's Gospel reading the disciples, in keeping with the mentality of the time, believe the man is blind as a consequence of his sins or those of his parents, but "Jesus rejects this prejudice" and His words enable us to hear "the living voice of God, which is wise and providential Love".

  The Holy Father explained: "Faced with a man debilitated by his limitations and his suffering, Jesus does not think of any possible sins but of the will of God Who created the man for life. ... He enters into immediate action: mixing dust with His own saliva to make mud which He spreads over the blind man's eyes. This gesture alludes to the creation of man, which the Bible recounts with the symbol of dust moulded and animated with the breath of God".

  "In healing man, Jesus achieves a new creation. But that episode of healing gives rise to animated discussion because Jesus performs it on the Sabbath and thus, according to the Pharisees, breaks the precept of the feast day. Thus, at the end of the narrative, Jesus and the blind man both find themselves 'driven out' by the Pharisees: the One because He violated the law, the other because, despite the cure, he was still branded as a sinner since birth".

  "To the blind man Jesus reveals that He has come into the world for judgement, to separate the curable blind from those who will not let themselves be healed because they believe they are healthy. Indeed, in man there is a strong temptation to build a system of ideological security, even religion itself can become an element of this system, as can atheism or laicism, but by doing so he remains blinded by his own selfishness".

  The Holy Father concluded his remarks: "Let us allow ourselves to be healed by Jesus Who can and wants to give us the light of God! Let us confess our blindness, our short-sightedness and, especially, what the Bible calls the 'great sin': pride".
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