VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXIV - # 73
DATE 24-04-2014

Summary:
- THE POPE RECEIVES THE PRIME MINISTER OF ALBANIA
- STATEMENT OF THE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE
- BUDDHISTS AND CHRISTIANS: TOGETHER FOSTERING FRATERNITY
- POPE FRANCIS: DO NOT SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD
- POPE FRANCIS EXPRESSES CONCERN FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
- CARDINAL OUEDRAOGO TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TITULAR CHURCH
- AUDIENCES
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
- HOLY WEEK:
- CHRISM MASS: ANOINTED WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS
- MASS "IN CENA DOMINI" AT THE DON GNOCCHI CENTRE
- VIA CRUCIS: A GLORIOUS CROSS LIKE DAWN FOLLOWING A LONG NIGHT
- HOLY SATURDAY: RETURN TO THE PLACE OF THE FIRST CALL
- EASTER SUNDAY: LOVE LETS HOPE FLOURISH IN THE DESERT
- EASTER MONDAY: MARIA, MOTHER OF HOPE

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 THE POPE RECEIVES THE PRIME MINISTER OF ALBANIA
 Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Apostolic
Palace the Holy Father Francis received in audience the prime minister of
the Republic of Albania, Edi Rama, who subsequently met with Cardinal
Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Dominique
Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.
 During the cordial discussions, the Parties remarked upon the good
relations between the Holy See and the Republic of Albania, and focused on
themes of common interest regarding the relations between the ecclesial and
civil communities, including interreligious dialogue and the contribution
of the Church to the common good of Albanian society.
 Attention then turned to the principal regional issues and Albania’s
progress towards full integration within the European Union.

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 STATEMENT OF THE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE
 Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - This morning the director of the Holy
See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., issued the following
statement:
 "Several telephone calls have taken place in the context of Pope
Francis’ personal pastoral relationships. Since they do not in any way form
part of the Pope's public activities, no information is to be expected from
the Holy See Press Office. That which has been communicated in relation to
this matter, outside the scope of personal relationships, and the
consequent media amplification, cannot be confirmed as reliable, and is a
source of misunderstanding and confusion. Therefore, consequences relating
to the teaching of the Church are not to be inferred from these
occurrences".

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 BUDDHISTS AND CHRISTIANS: TOGETHER FOSTERING FRATERNITY
 Vatican City, April 2014 (VIS) - Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Fr. Miguel
Angel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J., respectively president and secretary of the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, have signed the message
that this dicastery sends each year to followers of Buddhism on the
festival of Vesakh.
 Vesakh is the principal Buddhist holy day that commemorates the birth,
enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha. According to tradition, the
historical Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment and passed away during
the full moon of the month of May; therefore, the date on which Vesakh is
celebrated varies from year to year and from country to country. On those
days, Buddhists visit local temples to offer the monks food and to hear the
teachings of the Buddha, taking special care to meditate and to observe the
eight precepts of Buddhism.
 This year's message is entitled: "Buddhists and Christians: Together
Fostering Fraternity". Extensive extracts from the text are published
below:
 "Our cordial greetings this year are inspired by Pope Francis’
Message for the World Day of Peace 2014, entitled Fraternity, the
Foundation and Pathway to Peace. There, Pope Francis observes that
'fraternity is an essential human quality, for we are relational beings. A
lively awareness of our relatedness helps us to look upon and to treat each
person as a true sister or brother; without fraternity it is impossible to
build a just society and a solid and lasting peace.
 Your religious tradition inspires the conviction that friendly relations,
dialogue, the sharing of gifts, and the respectful and harmonious exchange
of views lead to attitudes of kindness and love which in turn generate
authentic and fraternal relationships. You are also convinced that the root
of all evil is the ignorance and misunderstanding born of greed and hatred,
which in turn destroy the bonds of fraternity. Unfortunately, 'daily acts
of selfishness, which are at the root of so many wars and so much
injustice', prevent us from seeing others 'as beings made for reciprocity,
for communion and self-giving'.
 As Buddhists and Christians, we live in a world all too often torn apart
by oppression, selfishness, tribalism, ethnic rivalry, violence and
religious fundamentalism, a world where the 'other' is treated as an
inferior, a non-person, or someone to be feared and eliminated if possible.
Yet, we are called, in a spirit of cooperation with other pilgrims and with
people of good will, to respect and to defend our shared humanity in a
variety of socio-economic, political and religious contexts. Drawing upon
our different religious convictions, we are called especially to be
outspoken in denouncing all those social ills which damage fraternity; to
be healers who enable others to grow in selfless generosity, and to be
reconcilers who break down the walls of division and foster genuine
brotherhood between individuals and groups in society.
 Our world today is witnessing a growing sense of our common humanity and a
global quest for a more just, peaceful and fraternal world. But the
fulfilment of these hopes depends on a recognition of universal values. We
hope that interreligious dialogue will contribute, in the recognition of
the fundamental principles of universal ethics, to fostering a renewed and
deepened sense of unity and fraternity among all the members of the human
family. Indeed, 'each one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by
uniting and not dividing, by extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it,
by opening paths to dialogue and not by constructing new walls! Let us
dialogue and meet each other in order to establish a culture of dialogue in
the world, a culture of encounter!'.
 To build a world of fraternity, it is vitally important that we join
forces to educate people, particularly the young, to seek fraternity, to
live in fraternity and to dare to build fraternity. We pray that your
celebration of Vesakh will be an occasion to rediscover and promote
fraternity anew, especially in our divided societies".

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 POPE FRANCIS: DO NOT SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD
 Vatican City, April 2014 (VIS) - "Why do you seek the living one
among the dead?". With this question Pope Francis began his first
catechesis following Holy Week, on the feast of St. George, the Holy
Father's name day. He continued, "How often we look for life among
dead things, things that cannot give life, that are here today and gone
tomorrow!".
 The Pope explained that these words help us "when we close ourselves
within any form of selfishness or complacency; when we allow ourselves to
be seduced by earthly powers and the things of this world, forgetting God
and neighbour; when we place our trust in worldly vanities, in money, in
success", and he commented that for us, as for Thomas and Mary
Magdalene, "it is not easy to open oneself to Jesus; it is not obvious
to accept he life of the Risen Christ and His presence among us".
 "This question helps us resist the temptation to look back, to what
was yesterday, and pushes us forward into the future. ... Today this
question is also addressed to us. You, why are you looking among the dead
for one who is alive? You, who close in on yourself after a failure or who
no longer have the strength to pray? You who feel alone, abandoned by
friends, and perhaps even by God? You who have lost hope or you who feel
imprisoned by your sins? You who aspire to beauty, spiritual perfection,
justice, peace?".
 "We need to hear ourselves repeat and remind each other of the
angel’s admonition", concluded the Holy Father, "since it helps
us to emerge from our moments of sadness and opens up horizons of joy and
hope. That hope that removes stones from graves and encourages us to
proclaim the Good News, capable of generating new life for others. ... Let
us not seek among those many tombs that promise everything and give
nothing!".

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 POPE FRANCIS EXPRESSES CONCERN FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
 Vatican City, 23 April 2014 (VIS) - Following today's general audience,
the Holy Father launched an appeal for the workers of the Lucchini
steelworks in Piombino, which closed down a few days ago causing mass
layoffs. Pope Francis urged them not to despair, remarking that "when
human hopes are extinguished, the divine hope that never disappoints always
remains alive". He appealed to those in positions of responsibility to
use all their creativity and generosity "to reignite hope in the
hearts of our brothers and sisters and in the hearts of all those who have
been left jobless as a result of waste and the economic crisis. Please,
open your eyes and don’t stand there with your arms crossed!"

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 CARDINAL OUEDRAOGO TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TITULAR CHURCH
 Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - The Office of Liturgical Celebrations
of the Supreme Pontiff today announced that on Sunday, 27 April, at 6 p.m.,
Cardinal Philippe Nakellentuba Ouedraogo, archbishop of Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso, will take possession of the title of St. Mary the Consoler at
Tiburtino (Via de Casal Bertone, 80).

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 AUDIENCES
 Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in audience:
 - Fourteen prelates of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference
on their "ad limina" visit:
 - Archbishop Jabulani Adatus Nxumalo of Bloemfontaine;
 - Bishop Jan de Groef of Bethlehem;
 - Bishop Edward Gabriele Risi of Keimoes-Upington;
 - Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley;
 - Bishop Peter John Holiday of Kroonstad;
 - Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town;
 - Bishop Michael Wusternberg of Aliwal;
 - Bishop Adam Leszek Musialek of De Aar;
 - Bishop Francisco Fortunato De Gouveia of Oudtshoorn;
 - Bishop Vincent Mduduzi Zungu of Port Elizabeth;
 - Bishop Dabula Anton Mpako of Queenstown;
 - Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban, with his auxiliary
Bishop Barry Alexander Anthony Wood;
 - Bishop Thomas Graham Rose of Dundee.
 - Bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik of Daejeon, South Korea.

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