COMMITMENT TO TEACH PEACE IS EVER MORE URGENT

VATICAN CITY, JAN 20, 2004 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received members of the General Inspectorate for Public Security at the Vatican as is tradition at the beginning of the New Year. He thanked them for their service, "which for more than twenty-five years I follow attentively."

"Your job has become more complicated in the last few years because episodes of terrorist violence have greatly upset the security of our cities. While our vigilance has been intensified with every method, every day the commitment to teach peace appears more urgent."

The Holy Father said that "in the face of the many dramatic situations of our time, there is the risk of giving in to fatalism as if peace were an objective that is impossible to achieve. We must not succumb to this temptation! Teaching peace, with its specific demands, must continue to be the object of everyone's incessant commitment."
AC/.../VATICAN INSPECTORATE VIS 20040120 (160)

AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, JAN 2004 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

- Archbishop Giovanni Battista Morandini, apostolic nuncio in Korea and Mongolia.

- Maestro Gilbert Levine, accompanied by his wife and children.
AP/.../... VIS 20040120 (40)

TO RELIGIOUS LEADERS: PROMOTE A CULTURE OF DIALOGUE, RESPECT

VATICAN CITY, JAN 20, 2004 (VIS) - "Peace be with you!" were Pope John Paul's opening words this morning in the Concistory Hall as he welcomed participants, including Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, in the just-concluded Ninth Congress of the Islamic-Catholic Liaison Committee.

"Your committee," said the Pope in English, "which facilitates communication between Christians and Muslims, was established during a time of great expectation for world peace. Unfortunately, this hope has not yet been fulfilled. In the face of the tragedies which continue to afflict humanity, it is all the more necessary to convince people that peace is possible. Indeed, it is a duty," he said, citing his Message for World Day of Peace 2004. "I encourage you, and all leaders of religions, to promote a culture of dialogue, mutual understanding and respect. Upon you all, I invoke the abundant blessings of Almighty God!"

This committee, created in 1998, is comprised of representatives of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and of the Al-Azhar Permanent Committee for Dialogue with Monotheist Religions.
AC/ISLAMIC-CATHOLIC DIALOGUE/... VIS 20040120 (190)

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 20, 2004 (VIS) - The Holy Father accepted the resignation from the office of Shkodre (Scutari), Albania, presented by Bishop Zef Simoni, upon having reached the age limit.
RE/.../SIMONI VIS 20040120 (40)

MESSAGE FOR DEDICATION OF CHAPEL ON MOUNT OF THE BEATITUDES

VATICAN CITY, JAN 17, 2004 (VIS) - Made public today was Pope John Paul's Message, dated January 6, 2004 to His Beatitude Michel Sabbah, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem on the occasion of the January 11 dedication of the Chapel of the "Domus Galilaeae" on the Mount of Beatitudes in Korazim, 135 kilometers north of Jerusalem.

The Pope recalled his apostolic pilgrimage to the Mount of the Beatitudes on March 24, 2000 when he visited and blessed the Shrine of the Word and the Domus Galilaeae, a center for formation, study and retreats for seminarians and priests from around the world built by the Neocatechumenal Way on land offered to them by the Custos of the Holy Land. At that time he celebrated Mass for nearly 100,000 faithful, including 45,000 young people from Middle Eastern countries and from abroad, many from the Neocatechumenal Way. The project, whose construction began in 1999 and is not yet finished, is situated above the Shrine of the Beatitudes, towards the top of the mount of the same name, and overlooks Lake Tiberias.

In his Message to the patriarch, the Holy Father wrote that "the chapel, to be solemnly dedicated, offers the possibility of contemplating the supreme mystery of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the fresco of the Last Judgement, which enriches its apse, invites us to turn our eyes to those last realities of the faith which illuminate our daily pilgrimage on earth."

"I join you," wrote the Pope to the prelates, clergy and religious present, as well to members of movements and in particular of the Neocatechumenal Way, "in this intense spiritual moment that this Christian community is preparing to live and I send an affectionate greeting. ... I hope this important event will be an encouragement for everyone to renew their own adherence to Christ, Redeemer of the world."
MESS/CHAPEL DEDICATION/SABBAH VIS 20040119 (310)