AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, 3 APR 2008 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

 - Dieter Althaus, minister-president of the Free State of Thuringen, Germany, accompanied by his wife and an entourage.

 - Cardinal Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi, archbishop emeritus of Tokyo, Japan.

 - Six prelates from the Antilles Episcopal Conference, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Archbishop Michel Meranville of Fort-de-France, Martinique.

    - Bishop Emmanuel Lafont of Cayenne, French Guyana.

    - Archbishop Lawrence Aloysius Burke S.J. of Kingston in Jamaica, Jamaica, accompanied by Coadjutor Archbishop Donald James Reece.

    - Bishop Dorick McGowan Wright of Belize City-Belmopan, Belize.

    - Bishop Charles Henry Dufour of Montego Bay, Jamaica, apostolic administrator of Mandeville, Jamaica.

  On Wednesday 2 April, the Holy Father received in audience Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, archbishop of Krakow, Poland, and Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, coadjutor of Lviv of the Latins, Ukraine.
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BENEDICT XVI TO VISIT MEMORIAL TO WITNESSES OF THE FAITH

VATICAN CITY, 3 APR 2008 (VIS) - At 5.20 p.m. on Monday 7 April, the Pope will make a visit to the memorial to witnesses of the faith of the 20th and 21st centuries, which is located in the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on Rome's Isola Tiberina.

  This visit marks the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Sant'Egidio Community, which Servant of God John Paul II entrusted with the construction of the memorial in the basilica.

  A communique released by the Sant'Egidio Community explains that the Basilica of St. Bartholomew is "one of the oldest places of worship in the capital. It contains memorials and relics of many witnesses of our time, from the martyr Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, to Cardinal Posadas Ocampo who was killed by drug traffickers at Guadalajara, Mexico; from the evangelical pastor Paul Schneider ... who opposed Nazism as a contentious objector and witness of the faith, to Fr. Andrea Santoro, a Roman priest killed recently in Trabzon, Turkey".
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PRESENCE AND WITNESS OF GRANDPARENTS IN FAMILIES

VATICAN CITY, 3 APR 2008 (VIS) - "The presence and witness of grandparents in families" is the theme of the 18th plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family. More than 300 people will participate in the event, which begins today in the Vatican and will last to 5 April.

  This morning, Archbishop Fernando Filoni, substitute of the Secretariat of State, addressed the gathering on the subject of the role of the elderly in the Church and in society.

  Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. and Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia, will preside at the first two Eucharistic celebrations.

  Among the lay participants who have been invited to bear witness to the role of grandparents in modern society are the Italian politicians Marcello Pera and Giulio Andreotti, as well as a large number of experts from five continents.

  Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture will talk about grandparents as they appear in the Bible, whereas "the figure of grandparents in immigrant families" will be the subject of the contribution from Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. For his part, Cardinal Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna, Italy, will speak on Pope Paul VI's Encyclical "Humanae vitae" forty years after its publication.

  Finally, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, archbishop of Mexico, will inform the gathering on preparations for the 6th World Meeting of Families, which is due be held in Mexico City in 2009.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 2 APR 2008 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Bishop Thomas John Rodi of Biloxi, U.S.A., as metropolitan archbishop of Mobile (area 59,467, population 1,680,384, Catholics 67,351, priests 127, permanent deacons 62, religious 179), U.S.A. The archbishop-elect was born in New Orleans, U.S.A. in 1949, he was ordained a priest in 1978 and consecrated a bishop in 2001. He succeeds Archbishop Oscar Hugh Lipscomb, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Elevated the territorial prelature of Huari (area 23,000, population 319,700, Catholics 306,000, priests 43, religious 36), Peru, to the rank of diocese, with the same territorial configuration as before, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of Trujillo. He appointed Bishop Ivo Baldi Gaburri, prelate of Huari, as the first bishop of the new diocese.
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MAY THE CHURCH FOLLOW TEACHINGS, EXAMPLE OF JOHN PAUL II

VATICAN CITY, 2 APR 2008 (VIS) - In St. Peter's Square at 10.30 a.m. today, Benedict XVI presided at a Eucharistic celebration to mark the third anniversary of the death of Servant of God John Paul II. Members of the College of Cardinals concelebrated with the Holy Father.

  Addressing the more than 40,000 people present, the Pope in his homily returned to the hours following the news of John Paul II's death on 2 April 2005, recalling the innumerable faithful who prayed before his body and participated in the funeral.

  "Among the many human and supernatural qualities" of the late Pontiff, Benedict XVI mentioned "that of an exceptional spiritual and mystical sensibility. It sufficed to watch him as he prayed: he literally immersed himself in God and, during those moments, it seemed as if everything else was foreign to him. ... The Mass - as he often said - was for him the focal point of every day and of his entire life. The 'living and holy' reality of the Eucharist gave him the spiritual energy to guide the People of God along the path of history".

  After recalling how John Paul II died on the eve of the second Sunday of Easter, the Holy Father highlighted how the late Pope's pontificate, "both as a whole and in many specific moments, appears to us as a sign and testimony of Christ's resurrection. The paschal dynamism which rendered John Paul II's existence a complete response to the call of the Lord, could not be expressed without his participation in the suffering and death of the divine Master and Redeemer".

  Pope Benedict pointed out that the words from the Gospel that figured in today's Mass - the "do not be afraid" addressed by the angel to the women at the empty tomb - "became, from the solemn beginnings of his Petrine ministry, a kind of motto on the lips of Pope John Paul II".

  He always pronounced these words "with unbending firmness, at first while carrying his bishop's staff with its cross and later, when his physical strength was waning, almost while supporting himself on it, until that final Good Friday in which he participated in the Way of the Cross from his private chapel, holding the cross in his arms. ... That eloquent scene of human suffering and faith ... revealed to believers and to the whole world the secret of an entire Christian life".

  As little by little the late Polish Pontiff "lost everything, in the end even the power of speech, his trust in Christ became increasingly evident. As it was with Jesus, so with John Paul II, in the end words gave way to the extreme sacrifice, to the gift of self. Death was the seal of an existence entirely donated to Christ, conformed to Him even in physical terms, in his suffering and faithful abandonment in the arms of the heavenly Father".

  The Holy Father also reminded those present that today marks the opening of the First World Apostolic Congress on Divine Mercy, which aims to study Pope John Paul's "rich Magisterium on this subject.

  "God's mercy", Pope Benedict explained, "is a good key to understanding John Paul II's pontificate. He wanted the message of God's merciful love to reach all mankind and exhorted the faithful to bear witness to it".

  "Servant of God John Paul II personally knew and experienced the immense tragedies of the 20th century, and for a long time he asked himself what could stem the tide of evil. The answer could not but be in the love of God. In fact, only Divine Mercy is capable of limiting evil; only God's all-powerful love can overcome the arrogance of the wicked, and the destructive power of selfishness and hatred".

  The Holy Father gave thanks to the Lord "for having given the Church this faithful and courageous servant" and to the Virgin Mary "for having incessantly watched over his person and his ministry". He also asked John Paul II "to continue to intercede from heaven for each of us, and particularly for me whom Providence has called to take up his priceless spiritual legacy.

  "May the Church", Pope Benedict added in conclusion, "following his teaching and example, continue in her evangelising mission faithfully and without compromise, tirelessly spreading Christ's merciful love, source of true peace for the whole world".
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