AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, OCT 18, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience Cardinal James Aloysius Hickey, archbishop of Washington, United States.

This evening he is scheduled to receive Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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START OF ACADEMIC YEAR AT ECCLESIASTICAL UNIVERSITIES

VATICAN CITY, OCT 18, 2000 (VIS) - The Pope will give a homily and impart his blessing during a Eucharistic concelebration to mark the start of the academic year at ecclesiastical universities. The Mass is to take place at 6 p.m. on Friday, October 20 in St. Peter's Basilica and will be presided by Archbishop Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.

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HOLY SEE SIGNS PROTOCOLS TO CONVENTION ON CHILD'S RIGHTS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 18, 2000 (VIS) - Published this morning was a communique stating that on October 10, Archbishop Renato R. Martino, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, signed two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child: the first on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, of May 25, 2000, and the second on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, also of May 25, 2000.

The signing took place at a ceremony in the Office of Legal Affairs at U.N. headquarters in New York, in the presence of Palitha Kohona, chief of the Treaty Section of the U.N. The communique states that "Mr. Kohona, expressing his pleasure at the prompt signing of the above Protocols by the Holy See, informed Archbishop Martino that, as of October 10, 70 States have signed and 3 States have ratified the Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflicts, and that 64 States have signed and 1 State has ratified the Optional Protocol for the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 18, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Aizawl, India, presented by Bishop Denzil Reginald D'Souza in conformity with Canon 401, para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

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HOLY FATHER PRESIDES AT FUNERAL FOR CARDINAL PALAZZINI

VATICAN CITY, OCT 13, 2000 (VIS) - This evening at the Altar of the Cathedra in the Vatican Basilica, John Paul II presided at the funeral of Cardinal Pietro Palazzini, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, who died in Rome on October 11.

In his homily, the Pope said that the late cardinal "spent his life in assiduous service to God and to the Church, especially through study, teaching and the defense of Gospel truth. Above all in fact, he used his greatest energy in dedicating himself to the profound study of moral theology and Canon Law. ... He published numerous valued works and collaborated in others, bringing to all of them an important doctrinal contribution as well as his own personal wisdom."

Having recalled that Cardinal Palazzini had been prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Holy Father said: "After having studied so many saints and blesseds, our venerable brother is called now to enter their domain, through the door by which the righteous enter, the door that is the Lord Christ, the Saint of God."

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