TRANSMIT YOUR ENTHUSIASM FOR MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY

VATICAN CITY, JAN 20, 2005 (VIS) - This morning, John Paul II received participants in the General Chapter of the International Union of Families of Schoenstatt.

  After recalling what he wrote in the Apostolic Exhortation "Familiaris consortio," namely, that "the future of humanity passes by way of the family," the Pope asked those present to deepen "their understanding of marriage and the family in the light of faith. It is good that the family represents the charism of your union. The family is a 'school of love.' Transmit your enthusiasm for marriage and the family to your people."

  "Society currently needs more than ever healthy families who are capable of defending the common good," the Pope said. "If we strengthen the sacred institution of marriage and the family in keeping with the divine plan, love and solidarity between people will grow."

  The Holy Father stressed that the year of the Eucharist represents "an urgent invitation to find 'the source of all communion in the supreme Sacrament of love'. Discover anew the immense gift of the Eucharist 'in order to experience fully the beauty and the mission of the family'."
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, JAN 20, 2005 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences five prelates from the Spanish Episcopal Conference, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Archbishop Braulio Rodriguez Plata of Valladolid.

    - Bishop Jesus Garcia Burillo of Avila.

    - Bishop Atilano Rodriguez Martinez of Ciudad Rodrigo.

    - Bishop Carlos Lopez Hernandez of Salamanca.

    - Bishop Luis Gutierrez Martin. C.M.F., of Segovia.

  On the evening of Wednesday, January 19, he received in separate audiences three prelates from the Spanish Episcopal Conference, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Archbishop Elias Yanes Alvarez of Zaragoza.

    - Bishop Casimiro Lopez Llorente of Zamora.

    - Bishop Alfonso Milian Sorribas of Barbastro-Monzon.
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CATHOLIC AGENCIES GIVE $500 MILLION IN AID TO TSUNAMI VICTIMS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 20, 2005 (VIS) - Published today was the speech given in New York on January 18 by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, before the plenary of the General Assembly on Item 39, Strengthening the Coordination of Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Assistance of the United Nations, Including Special Economic Assistance: Draft Resolution.

  The archbishop, referring to the December 26 tsunami disaster, expressed "deepest condolences to the concerned countries," and noted that "since the very start of the emergency, His Holiness Pope John Paul the Second has expressed his deepest sympathy.  He has committed the agencies of the Catholic Church to act in a genuine gesture of solidarity to all people without exception in each nation touched by this enormous tragedy."

  He added that the Catholic Church's "institutions and the Papal Representatives present in the affected countries went into action immediately. Firstly, they gave out food and clothes as well as sheltering the affected populations. Tragically, it has become clear that the most affected group has been young children, of whom at least fifty thousand were swept away, but there are also tens of thousands left orphaned.  For this reason we are placing special emphasis upon ways to bring help to surviving children in the zones worst affected."

  "In cooperation with the Pontifical Council Cor Unum," stated Archbishop Migliore, "a very long list of Catholic agencies is already using funds from throughout the world, amounting to nearly five hundred million dollars, some of which is going into emergency aid and the rest into longer term projects through our local networks." He underscored that "the extraordinary impact of the power of nature ... elicited an equally extraordinary response from the peoples and governments of the whole world. ... Such a swift and practical expression of global solidarity is surely a sign of the fundamental decency of the peoples of the world."

  The nuncio remarked that "the world's nations should seize this opportunity and the good will generated by the world's peoples so as to further important humanitarian goals on the broader agenda at this time. ... My delegation earnestly hopes, therefore, that this year will be one in which solidarity will be the hallmark of the political agenda."
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POPE GREETS PATRIARCH OF CILICIA OF THE THE ARMENIANS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 19, 2005 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father greeted the pilgrims present in various languages. "I have special thoughts," he began, "for the patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, and the other bishops who accompany him."

  The patriarch is in Rome for today's blessing by the Pope of a statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator, the apostle of Armenia who is also called "the Enlightener," who brought Christianity to the Armenians and who died in 332. The statue will be in a courtyard of St. Peter's Basilica.

  "I also wish to greet," he added, "the priests, seminarians and lay people of the Neocatechumenal Way. Dear ones, I thank you for your generous commitment to the new evangelization. I hope that your reflections in recent days will help you to deepen, with a docile spirit, the communion both with the pastors of the local Churches and the appropriate offices of the Holy See. You can thus offer an ever more effective contribution to the cause of the Gospel."
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UNITY, A GIFT OF GOD TO BE TIRELESSLY IMPLORED

VATICAN CITY, JAN 19, 2005 (VIS) - In today's general audience held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope recalled the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which began yesterday, saying "these are days of reflection and prayer, fittingly reminding Christians that the re-establishment of full unity among them, according to Jesus' will, involves all the baptized, both pastors and faithful."

  John Paul II affirmed that the Week of Prayer "is taking place a few months after the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of the Decree 'Unitatis redintegratio' of Vatican Council II, a key text that firmly and irrevocably placed the Catholic Church within the ecumenical movement."

  "This year," he went on, "the theme faces us with a truth basic to all ecumenical commitment: that Christ is the foundation of the Church. The Council strongly recommended prayer for unity as the soul of the entire ecumenical movement. ... But prayer must be accompanied by purification of mind, feelings and memory. Thus it becomes an expression of that 'interior conversion' without which there is no ecumenism. In the end, unity is a gift of God, a gift to be tirelessly implored with humility and truth."

  After highlighting how the longing for unity is spreading, the Holy Father pointed out that "the Lord has recently allowed his disciples to form important contacts of dialogue and collaboration. The pain of separation makes itself felt ever more intensely, in the face of the challenges of a world that awaits clear and unanimous evangelical witness from all believers in Christ."

  The Pope concluded by recalling that on January 25 he will be spiritually present at the celebration of Vespers to close the Week of Prayer, which will be presided in his name by Cardinal Walter Kasper. The ceremony is due to take place in the basilica of St Paul's Outside-the-Walls and will be attended by representatives from other Churches and Christian confessions. "I also ask you to pray so that, as soon as possible, the entire family of the faithful may achieve the full communion desired by Christ."

  Prior to the audience, John Paul II blessed a statue of St Gregory the Illuminator, the apostle of the Armenians, which has been placed behind the Vatican Basilica. The brief ceremony was attended by the patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, together with the bishops of his entourage.
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