LENT: REDISCOVERING OUR BAPTISM

VATICAN CITY, 9 MAR 2011 (VIS) - "Today, with the austere symbol of the ashes, we enter the period of Lent, beginning a spiritual journey which prepares for a worthy celebration of the Paschal mysteries. The ashes ... are a sign reminding us of our status as created beings and inviting us to penance, to intensify our commitment to conversion so as to continue following the Lord", said the Pope in his general audience today, held in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 7,000 faithful.

  "Lent is a journey, it means accompanying Jesus as He travels to Jerusalem, the place where the mystery of His Passion, Death and Resurrection is to be fulfilled. It reminds us that Christian life is a 'road' to be travelled, consisting not so much in a law to be observed as in the person of Christ Himself, Who must be encountered, welcomed and followed".

  "It is above all in the liturgy, in participation in the holy mysteries, that we are drawn into following this path with the Lord, ... reliving the events that have led us to salvation; but not as a simple commemoration, a recollection of things past", the Holy Father explained. "There is", he said, "a keyword to indicate this, which is often repeated in the liturgy: the word 'today', which must be understood not metaphorically but in its original concrete sense. Today God reveals His law and we have the opportunity to chose between good and evil, between life and death".

  On Sundays during Lent we experience "a baptismal itinerary" which helps to conform "our lives to the requirements and duties of that Sacrament, which lies at the foundation of our Christian life".

  "The first Sunday [of Lent], called the Sunday of temptation because it presents us with the temptation of Jesus in the desert, invites is to renew our definitive choice for God, and courageously to face the struggle that awaits us in remaining faithful to Him". The second Sunday is the Sunday of Abraham and the Transfiguration and, "like Abraham, father of believers, we too are invited to depart, to leave our own land, to abandon the certainties we have constructed and place our faith in God. We may glimpse our goal in the transfiguration of Christ, the beloved Son, in Whom we too become 'children of God'".

  On the third Sunday we encounter the Samaritan woman. "Like Israel in the Exodus, in Baptism we too received the water that saves. Jesus, as He tells the Samaritan woman, has the water of life which satisfies every thirst; this water is His Spirit. ... The fourth Sunday leads us to reflect on the experience of the man 'blind from birth'. In Baptism we are freed from the shades of evil and receive the light of Christ in order to live as children of light. ... Finally, the fifth Sunday presents us with the raising of Lazarus. In Baptism we pass from death to life and become capable of pleasing God, of causing the old man to die so as to live in the spirit of the Risen One".

  In Church tradition the period of Lent is characterised by practices such as fasting, almsgiving and prayer, said Pope Benedict, explaining how fasting "means abstaining from food, but it also includes other forms of privation for a more abstemious life". It "is closely linked to almsgiving ... which under the one name of 'mercy' embraces many good works". Moreover, during this period the Church "invites us to a more trusting and intense prayer, and to prolonged meditation on the Word of God".

  "On this Lenten journey", the Pope concluded, "let us be attentive to welcoming Christ's invitation to follow Him more decisively and coherently, renewing the grace and commitments of our Baptism, so as to abandon the old man who is in us and clothe ourselves in Christ, thus reaching Easter renewed and being able to say with St. Paul 'it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me'".
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BRAZIL FRATERNITY CAMPAIGN: DEFENDING HUMAN ECOLOGY

VATICAN CITY, 9 MAR 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father sent a Message to Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha of Mariana, president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, for the Fraternity Campaign traditionally promoted by the Brazilian Church during Lent.

  The theme of the 2011 campaign is: "Fraternity and life on the planet", and its motto is: "the creation groans with labour pains. This, the Pope writes, "is an echo of the words used by St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans. One of the reasons for these groans is the damage caused to creation by human selfishness", he says.

  Benedict XVI affirms that "the first step towards a correct relationship with the world around us is the recognition by humans of their status as created beings. Man is not God; he is His image. For this reason he must seek to be more sensitive to the presence of God in his surroundings. In all creatures, and especially in human beings, there is an epiphany, or manifestation, of God".

  "The human being will be capable of respecting other creatures only if he keeps the full meaning of life in his own heart. Otherwise he will come to despise himself and his surroundings, and to disrespect the environment, the creation, in which he lives. For this reason, the first ecology to be defended is 'human ecology'. This is to say that, without a clear defence of human life from conception until natural death; without a defence of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman; without an authentic defence of those excluded and marginalised by society, not overlooking, in this context, those who have lost everything in natural calamities, we will never be able to speak of authentic protection of the environment".
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 8 MAR 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Rolando Jose Alvarez Lagos of the clergy of the archdiocese of Managua, Nicaragua, pastor of the parish of "San Francisco de Asis", secretary of the department for the social communications media of the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua, and adjunct secretary of the secretariat of the Central American Episcopate, as bishop of Matagalpa (area 6,794, population 544,000, Catholics 521,000, priests 48, religious 60), Nicaragua. The bishop-elect was born in Managua in 1966 and ordained a priest in 1994.
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REFLECTING ON THE MYSTERY OF THE DIVINE CALL

VATICAN CITY, 5 MAR 2011 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, in keeping with an annual tradition, the Holy Father visited the Major Roman Seminary for the occasion of the feast of its patroness, Our Lady of Trust.

  In the major chapel of the seminary, the Pope presided at a "lectio divina" for all seminarians in the diocese of Rome, focusing on the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians.

  Commenting on the word "call" or "vocation" as used by St. Paul, Benedict XVI highlighted how "Christian life begins with a call and is itself always a response, until the end". In this context he affirmed that "the image of the Annunciation to Mary represents much more than that single evangelical episode: ... it contains the whole mystery of Mary, her entire story, her very being. At the same time it speaks of the Church, of her eternal essence, and of each individual believer in Christ, of each Christian soul which receives the call".

  "The Lord", he went on, "has called each of us; each is called by name. God is so great that He has time for each of us. He knows me, He knows each of us by name, personally. ... I believe that we must meditate on this mystery again and again: God, the Lord, has called me, He calls me, He knows me and awaits my response as He awaited Mary's response, as He awaited the response of the Apostles".

  Turning then to consider the Lord's humility, about which St. Paul speaks in his Letter to the Philippians, the Pope said: "the God Who came down to me, Who was so great as to become my friend and to suffer for me, Who died for me: this is the humility we must learn, the humility of God. It follows that we must always see ourselves in the light of God, so as to appreciate how great it is to be loved by Him and, at the same time, to see our own smallness, our poverty, and thus rightly comport ourselves not as masters but as servants".

  After then highlighting how "the call of God is also a call in community, an ecclesial call", the Holy Father explained that "the Holy Spirit creates the body and unites us as a single body. ... In this way we are in union with Christ, accepting the corporeity of His Church, of the Spirit which is incarnated in the body".

  "We also have to bear in mind how beautiful it is to be part of a company, ... having friends in heaven and on earth, experiencing the beauty of this body, being happy that the Lord has called us into a single body and given us friends all over the world".

  In closing, Benedict XVI reflected on "the importance of always seeking communion in the one Christ, the one God".

  "The unity of the Church", he concluded, "is the result of harmony, of a shared commitment to act like Jesus, by virtue of His spirit. ... In order to conserve unity of spirit, it is necessary to mould our own behaviour on the humility, sweetness and magnanimity to which Jesus bore witness in His Passion. Our hands and heart must be tied by that bond of love which He accepted for us, making Himself our servant".
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 5 MAR 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Bishop Dieudonne Watio of Nkongsamba, Cameroon, as bishop of Bafoussam (area 13,000, population 1,917,000, Catholics 333,500, priests 125, religious 216), Cameroon.

 - Appointed Bishop Dominic Kimengich, auxiliary of Lodwar, Kenya, as bishop of the same diocese (area 77,000, population 570,000, Catholics 73,585, priests 49, permanent deacons 1, religious 92). He succeeds Bishop Patrick Joseph Harrington S.M.A., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

 - Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Orvieto-Todi, Italy, presented by Archbishop Giovanni Scanavino O.S.A., in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law, appointing Archbishop Giovanni Marra, emeritus of Messina - Lipari - Santa Lucia del Mela, Italy, as apostolic administrator "ad nutum Sanctae Sedis" of the same archdiocese.

 - Appointed Fr. Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra, rector of the major inter-diocesan seminary of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, as bishop of the diocese of the Most Holy Trinity in Almaty (area 711,600, population 6,400,000, Catholics 50,000, priests 18, religious 27), Kazakhstan. The bishop-elect was born in Lleida, Spain in 1969 and ordained a priest in 1995. He succeeds Bishop Henry Theophilus Howaniec O.F.M., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Fr. Atanaz Orosz, currently superior of the preparatory year at the central seminary of Budapest, Hungary, as apostolic exarch of Miskolc (Catholics 20,000, priests 31), Hungary. The bishop-elect was born in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary in 1960 and ordained a priest in 1985.
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