VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 96
DATE 25-05-2014

Summary:
- MASS IN MANGER SQUARE: GOD TELLS US TO SEEK THE CHILD IN A WORLD WHERE SO
MANY OF THEM LIVE IN INHUMAN CONDITIONS
- FRANCIS INVITES MAHMOUD ABBAS AND SHIMON PERES TO PRAY TOGETHER IN THE
VATICAN FOR PEACE
- REGINA COELI: FRANCIS COMMENDS THE HOLY LAND AND HER INHABITANTS TO MARY
- TO THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES: PEACE WILL BRING IMMEASURABLE BENEFITS TO
THE PEOPLE OF THIS REGION AND THE WORLD
- IN JORDAN: POPE RENEWS APPEAL TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FOR REFUGEES
FROM SYRIA AND IRAQ AND ASKS ARMS DEALERS TO CONVERT
- MESS IN AMMAN: MAY THE HOLY SPIRIT PREPARE US FOR ENCOUNTER DESPITE
DIFFERENT IDEAS, LANGUAGES, CULTURES OR RELIGIONS
- "VATICAN.VA" AVAILABLE IN ARABIC

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 MASS IN MANGER SQUARE: GOD TELLS US TO SEEK THE CHILD IN A WORLD WHERE SO
MANY OF THEM LIVE IN INHUMAN CONDITIONS
 Vatican City, 25 May 2014 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father celebrated
the Eucharist in Bethlehem's Manger Square, at the confluence of Milk
Grotto Street (the site of a shrine situated in a grotto carved out of
white tuff rock, where according to tradition Mary fed the baby Jesus) and
Paul VI Street, named to commemorate Pope Montini's visit on 6 January
1964. During his journey to the Presidential Palace of Bethlehem to Manger
Square, the Pope got out of the jeep and prayed before the wall dividing
Bethlehem from Israel, after which he rested his head on it for a moment.
 The Mass was attended by the president of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, and
groups of faithful from the Gaza Strip and Galilee (State of Israel), as
well as many immigrant workers from Asia.
 "What a great grace it is to celebrate the Eucharist in the place
where Jesus was born!" exclaimed the Pope. "I thank God and I
thank all of you who have welcomed me on my pilgrimage: President Mahmoud
Abbas and the other civil authorities; Patriarch Fouad Twal and the other
bishops and ordinaries of the Holy Land, the priests, the consecrated
persons and all those who labour to keep faith, hope and love alive in
these lands; the faithful who have come from Gaza and Galilee, and the
immigrants from Asia and Africa. Thank you for your welcome!"
 "The Child Jesus, born in Bethlehem, is the sign given by God to
those who awaited salvation, and he remains forever the sign of God's
tenderness and presence in our world: 'This will be a sign for you: you
will find a child...'. Today too, children are a sign. They are a sign of
hope, a sign of life, but also a 'diagnostic' sign, a marker indicating the
health of families, society and the entire world. Wherever children are
accepted, loved, cared for and protected, the family is healthy, society is
more healthy and the world is more human. Here we can think of the work
carried out by the Ephpheta Paul VI institute for hearing and speech
impaired Palestinian children: it is a very real sign of God's goodness; it
is a concrete sign of a better society. To us, the men and women of the
twenty-first century, God also says: 'This will be a sign for you', look to
the child... The Child of Bethlehem is frail, like all newborn children. He
cannot speak and yet he is the Word made flesh who came to transform the
hearts and lives of all men and women. This Child, like every other child,
is vulnerable; he needs to be accepted and protected. Today too, children
need to be welcomed and defended, from the moment of their conception.
 "Sadly, in this world of ours, with all its highly developed
technology, great numbers of children continue to live in inhuman
situations, on the fringes of society, in the peripheries of great cities
and in the countryside", he continued. "All too many children
continue to exploited, maltreated, enslaved, prey to violence and illicit
trafficking. Still too many children live in exile, as refugees, at times
lost at sea, particularly in the waters of the Mediterranean. Today, in
acknowledging this, we feel shame before God, before God who became a
child. And we have to ask ourselves: Who are we, as we stand before the
Child Jesus? Who are we, standing as we stand before today's children? Are
we like Mary and Joseph, who welcomed Jesus and care for him with the love
of a father and a mother? Or are we like Herod, who wanted to eliminate
him? Are we like the shepherds, who went in haste to kneel before him in
worship and offer him their humble gifts? Or are we indifferent? Are we
perhaps people who use fine and pious words, yet exploit pictures of poor
children in order to make money? Are we ready to be there for children, to
'waste time' with them? Are we ready to listen to them, to care for them,
to pray for them and with them? Or do we ignore them because we are too
caught up in our own affairs?".
 "'This will be a sign for you: you will find a child...'. Perhaps
that little boy or girl is crying. He is crying because he is hungry,
because she is cold, because he or she wants to be picked up and held in
our arms... Today too, children are crying, they are crying a lot, and
their crying challenges us. In a world which daily discards tons of food
and medicine there are children, hungry and suffering from easily curable
diseases, who cry out in vain. In an age which insists on the protection of
minors, there is a flourishing trade in weapons which end up in the hands
of child-soldiers, there is a ready market for goods produced by the slave
labour of small children. Their cry is stifled: they must fight, they must
work, they cannot cry! But their mothers cry for them, as modern-day
Rachels: they weep for their children, and they refuse to be
consoled".
 "'This will be a sign for you'. The Child Jesus, born in Bethlehem,
every child who is born and grows up in every part of our world, is a
diagnostic sign indicating the state of health of our families, our
communities, our nation. Such a frank and honest diagnosis can lead us to a
new kind of lifestyle where our relationships are no longer marked by
conflict, oppression and consumerism, but fraternity, forgiveness and
reconciliation, solidarity and love".
 The Pope concluded with a prayer to the Holy Virgin: "Mary, Mother of
Jesus, you who accepted, teach us how to accept; you who adored, teach us
how to adore; you who followed, teach us how to follow. Amen".

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 FRANCIS INVITES MAHMOUD ABBAS AND SHIMON PERES TO PRAY TOGETHER IN THE
VATICAN FOR PEACE
 Vatican City, 25 May 2014 (VIS) - At the end of the Eucharistic
celebration, the Pope invited the president of the State of Palestine,
Mahmoud Abbas, and the president of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, to
meet in the Vatican to pray together for peace.
 "In this, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, I wish to invite
you, President Mahmoud Abbas, together with President Shimon Peres, to join
me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace", said the Pope
following the Regina Coeli. "I offer my home in the Vatican as a place
for this encounter of prayer".
 "All of us want peace. Many people build it day by day through small
gestures and acts; many of them are suffering, yet patiently persevere in
their efforts to be peacemakers. All of us - especially those placed at the
service of their respective peoples - have the duty to become instruments
and artisans of peace, especially by our prayers. Building peace is
difficult, but living without peace is a constant torment. The men and
women of these lands, and of the entire world, all of them, ask us to bring
before God their fervent hopes for peace".

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 REGINA COELI: FRANCIS COMMENDS THE HOLY LAND AND HER INHABITANTS TO MARY
 Vatican City, 25 May 2014 (VIS) - After proposing the Vatican as the the
location for a prayer meeting between the presidents of the State of
Palestine and the State of Israel, Pope Francis prayed the Regina Coeli,
commenting that it was precisely there in Bethlehem that Mary gave birth to
her Son Jesus and that the Virgin "is the one who, more than any other
person, contemplated God in the human face of Jesus. Assisted by Saint
Joseph, she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the
manger".
 "To Mary we entrust this land and all who dwell here, that they may
live in justice, peace and fraternity", he said. "We entrust also
the pilgrims who come here to draw from the sources of the Christian faith
- so many of them are also present at this Holy Mass. Mary, watch over our
families, our young people and our elderly. Watch over those who have lost
faith and hope. Comfort the sick, the imprisoned and all who suffer. Watch
over the Church's Pastors and the entire community of believers; may they
may be 'salt and light' in this blessed land. Sustain all educational
initiatives, particularly Bethlehem University".
 "Contemplating the Holy Family here in Bethlehem, my thoughts turn
spontaneously to Nazareth, which I hope to visit, God willing, on another
occasion. From this place I embrace with affection the Christian faithful
living in Galilee and I express my support for the building of the
International Centre for the Family in Nazareth. We entrust the future of
our human family to Mary Most Holy, that new horizons may open in our
world, with the promise of fraternity, solidarity and peace".

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