BLESSED are the PEACEMAKERS: Pope Benedict XVI's 2013 World Day of Peace Message

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

Vatican City, 16 July 2012 (VIS) - "Blessed are the peacemakers" is the theme chosen by the Holy Father for the forty-sixth World Day of Peace, which will fall on 1 January 2013, according to a communique released today by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. "The annual Message of the Pope, in the complexity of the present time, will encourage everyone to take responsibility with regard to peace-building", the English-language communique reads.

"The Message will embrace, therefore, the fullness and diversity of the concept of peace, starting from the human being: inner peace and outer peace; then, highlighting the anthropological emergency, the nature and incidence of nihilism; and, at the same time, fundamental rights, in the first place freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, freedom of religion. The Message will offer, as well, an ethical reflection on some measures the world is going to take to contain the financial and economic crisis, the educational crisis, the crisis of the institutions and politics, which is also - in many cases - a worrying crisis of democracy.

"The Message will also look at the fifteth Anniversary of Vatican Council II and of the Encyclical Letter by Pope John XXIII, 'Pacem in Terris', according to which the primacy is always for human dignity and freedom, for the building of an earthly city to the service of every person, without any discrimination, and directed to the common good which is based on justice and true peace.

"'Blessed are the peacemakers' will be the eighth Message of Pope Benedict XVI for the Celebration of the World Day of Peace. Following are the titles of the previous ones: 'In Truth, Peace' (2006), 'The Human Person, Heart of Peace' (2007), 'The Human Family, a Community of Peace' (2008), 'Fighting Poverty to Build Peace' (2009), 'If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation' (2010), 'Religious Freedom, the path to peace' (2011), 'Educating young people in justice and peace' (2012)".

Some Notes on 6th World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees

Official: Catholics Need New Perspective on Migrants
Reflects on Circulation of People, Consequence of Globalization
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 3, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Globalization is not just about economics; it is also about the human person, and thus challenges us to a "radical change in perspective," says one Vatican official.

Archbishop Antonio Vegliò, president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, spoke of this challenge today when he announced the upcoming conference hosted by this dicastery.

The archbishop said the risk today is for the discussion on globalization to be seen "almost exclusively with reference to the economic-financial sphere, characterized by the amount of international aid and the degree of trade liberalization."

"But," he said, "we know, as Christians, that life's core is fundamentally spiritual and that the challenge is how to promote and safeguard every human person, preferring the most vulnerable, precisely people like, among others, migrants and refugees."

The pontifical council conference will be the sixth of its kind. It is scheduled for next Monday through Thursday, and will consider the theme: "A pastoral response to the phenomenon of migration in the era of globalization. Five years after the Instruction 'Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi.'"

Archbishop Vegliò said the challenge in a globalized society is "to make a radical change in perspective, by making a clear 'choice for the human person,' giving them back the place that God has assigned to them within the one family of peoples, 'image and likeness' of the Creator."

Welcome

The Vatican official suggested that this perspective change is made concrete in relation to migrants in "the value of welcome."

He said this value is carried out with respect for persons of different nationalities, ethnicities and religions, and "contributes to rendering visible the authentic physiognomy of the Church itself."

"The Church," the archbishop affirmed, "is close to migrants, especially to the victims of human trafficking, to refugees, to asylum seekers, and to the people who suffer the tragedy of human mobility."

This closeness translates into defending the cause of migrants, he added, "also through a collaboration in promoting adequate laws, at the local and international levels, that favor proper integration."

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Moving Money, People and the Earth's Goods
Migrants Council to Look at Globalization
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 3, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Globalization has brought about the international circulation of money, but human persons are still not free to circulate, the president of the Vatican's migrant council observed.

Archbishop Antonio Vegliò noted the "walls of national boundaries" today when he presented the 6th World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees.

The conference is scheduled for next Monday through Thursday, and will consider the theme:"A pastoral response to the phenomenon of migration in the era of globalization. Five years after the Instruction 'Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi.'"

During the presentation, the archbishop reflected: "[G]lobalization has created a new labor market and, consequently, pushed many to emigrate, also to flee from poverty, misery, natural catastrophes and local and international conflicts, as well as from political or religious persecution. This has opened markets to international intervention, but it has not torn down the walls of national boundaries to allow the free circulation of people, with due respect for the sovereignty of states and their constitutional charters, safeguarding legality and security.

"The migration phenomenon, therefore, 'raises a truly ethical question: the search for a new international economic order for a more equitable distribution of the goods of the earth.'"

Participants in the conference will consider these themes from a variety of areas of expertise.

There will be 14 main speakers, including Senator Giuseppe Schifani, president of the Italian Senate; William Lacy Swing, director-general of the International Organization for Migration; Laurens Jolles, regional representative for Europe of the U.N. High Commissioners Office for Refugees; and Jesuit Father Pierre Martinot-Lagarde, special adviser for Socio-Religious Affairs and Special Partnerships of the International Labor Organizaton.

In addition to 53 prelates, representatives of men and women religious, and national and international bishops' conferences, there will also be delegates representing the Orthodox, Anglicans and Lutherans.
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Subsidiarity a "New Approach" for Migration Issue
Prelate Recalls Fundamental Principles
ATHENS, Greece, NOV. 4, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The secretary of the Vatican's migration council is proposing the principle of subsidiarity as a suggestion for new approaches in the complex issue of migration.

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto spoke of this and other principles of social doctrine when he addressed today a forum on migration and development under way through Thursday in Athens.

Before all, he affirmed that "a correct approach to the management of this phenomenon should first of all consider the migrant as a human person who, as such, is endowed with inalienable rights, which everyone must respect under all circumstances."

Then the prelate cited Benedict XVI in affirming that justice and the common good are two criteria "applicable to that manifestation of globalization which is the macro-phenomenon of migration."

Archbishop Marchetto observed how the Pope refers constantly to solidarity in his encyclical "Caritas in Veritate."

He further proposed that a "new approach in facing these problems can be suggested by the criterion of subsidiarity which, in our sphere, requires the involvement of all actors in the management of migration, at all levels, and at the same time the recognition, where possible, of the rightful autonomy of intermediate bodies -- communities in diaspora, association of migrants, of their families, etc."

Subsidiarity needs to always be accompanied by its sister principle of solidarity, however, "so that the former may not fall into social 'particularism' nor the latter deteriorate into 'assistentialism,' which humiliates the needy," he said.

The Vatican official also highlighted the importance of cultural integration for immigrants.

"We know that the relationship between cultures always have an effect also on the economic field," he said. "In the encyclical itself, Pope Benedict XVI calls to mind that 'the reduction of cultures to the technological dimension, even if it favors short-term profits, in the long term impedes reciprocal enrichment and the dynamics of cooperation' inasmuch as 'workers tend to adapt passively to automatic mechanisms, rather than to release creativity' and points out that technological development is precisely produced 'through human creativity as a tool of personal freedom.'"

Migration is an issue that is bigger than any one nation, the archbishop acknowledged, and proposed in concluding that it be faced globally, with the "recognition that the human race is a single family working together in true communion, not simply a group of subjects who happen to live side by side."

Immigration: Making Catholicity Tangible

http://www.zenit.org/article-26887?l=english

ZE09091609 - 2009-09-16
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-26887?l=english


Vatican Aide Notes How Migration Helps Ecclesiology

BRASILIA, Brazil, SEPT. 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Immigration makes the nature of the universal Church visible, according to a Vatican aide who was reflecting on migrants and catholicity.

Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, spoke about immigration and ecclesiology when he addressed the third international conference on migrant ministry, which opened today in Brazil.

The prelate affirmed that immigration, which he called a "sign of the times," can be a chance for local Churches to live and feel the ecclesiology of communion and mission spoken about in "Lumen Gentium" from the Second Vatican Council.

The pastoral care of migrants "contributes to making visible the genuine physiognomy of the Church," he contended.

"Also through them," the archbishop added, "God's plan of salvific communion can be carried out among peoples."

Archbishop Marchetto further observed that immigrants themselves have the "privileged though painful opportunity of coming to a greater sense of belonging to the universal Church, beyond any particularity."

He recalled how "Lumen Gentium" teaches that the Church exists as universal and particular, without contradiction.

And the Church's pastoral program with immigrants must be carried out "in hierarchical communion with the bishop, the clergy, the laity and the religious," the archbishop said. He added that a concept of "mission" must also be taken into account.

"Mission is not only carried out in the so-called mission territories, traditionally in Asia and Africa, given that today the inhabitants of the different continents move, and with them, moves the mission," he observed.

"The Church becomes the history of a people on the way who, starting from the mystery of Christ and the circumstances of the people and groups that make it up, is called to build a new history, gift of God and fruit of human liberty," Archbishop Marchetto said. "This is the thread of the history that enters in God's order, in the paschal mystery of death and life, and also the thread of the joys and sorrows of migrants, pilgrims on earth."

Vatican/UN: GREATER INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION IN HEALTHCARE SECTOR

VATICAN CITY, 15 JUL 2009 (VIS) - On 9 July Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi C.S., Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations and Specialised Institutions in Geneva, addressed the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

In his English-language address, made public yesterday afternoon, Archbishop Tomasi expressed the view that "the financial and economic crisis that greed and lack of ethical responsibility have brought about" has been further exacerbated by the influenza virus A-H1N1 "already recognised at pandemic proportion with a future impact that cannot be projected with much certainty, and by the global food security crisis that endangers the lives of millions of people, particularly the world's poorest, many of whom already suffer from acute and chronic malnutrition".

"The Holy See delegation notes with deep concern predictions by the World Bank that during 2009 an additional 53 to 65 million people will be trapped in extreme poverty, and that the number of people chronically hungry will exceed one billion, 800 million of whom live in rural areas".

After then highlighting the importance of overcoming "the temptation to reduce public services for a short-term benefit against the long-term human cost", the archbishop indicated that "aid for development should be maintained and even increased as a critical factor in renewing the economy and leading us out of the crisis".

He went on: "Another key obstacle to achieving the internationally articulated goals in public health is to address the inequalities that exist both between countries and within countries, and between racial and ethnic groups. Tragically, women continue in many regions to receive poorer quality healthcare".

"The Catholic Church", noted the permanent observer, "sponsors 5,378 hospitals, 18,088 health clinics, 15,448 homes for the elderly and disabled, and other health care programmes throughout the world, but especially in the most isolated and marginalized areas". Yet "faith-based organisations do not receive an equitable share of the resources designated to support global, national and local health initiatives", he said.

"The mere quantitative tracking of aid flows and the multiplication of global health initiatives alone may not be sufficient to assure 'Health for All'. Access to primary health care and affordable life-saving drugs is vital to improving global health. ... In an increasingly interdependent world, even sickness and viruses have no boundaries, and therefore, greater global co-operation becomes not only a practical necessity, but more importantly, an ethical imperative of solidarity.

"However, we must be guided by the best healthcare tradition that respects and promotes the right to life from conception until natural death for all regardless of race, disability, nationality, religion, sex and socio-economic status".

The Holy See delegation believes "an ethical approach to development is needed which implies a new model of global development centred on the human person rather than profit, and inclusive of the needs and aspirations of the entire human family".
DELSS/ECOSOC/GENEVA:TOMASI VIS 090715 (480)

Vatican Statement on Public Health/Geneva

Statement by His Excellency Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Permanent Representative of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, at the 2009 High-Level Segment

of the Economic and Social Council

Geneva, 9 July 2009



Madame President,



1. The international community is struggling to find solutions to the financial and economic crisis that greed and lack of ethical responsibility have brought about. While analysts debate the causes of the crisis, the social consequences of new poverty, loss of jobs, malnutrition and stifled development, all impact the most vulnerable groups of people and therefore call for effective and prompt answers. The Delegation of the Holy See appreciates the fact that the focus of attention is directed in this High-Level Segment, in a most timely manner, on “Current global and national trends and their impact on social development, including public health.” The global economic crisis continues unabated. It is exacerbated by the emergence of a previously unknown influenza virus, A-H1N1 already recognized at pandemic proportion with a future impact that cannot be projected with much certainty, and by the global food security crisis that endangers the lives of millions of people, particularly the world’s poorest, many of whom already suffer from acute and chronic malnutrition. These examples show once again the link between poverty and health and the disproportionate burden on developing countries and even on the poor in the developed ones. Faced with such urgent global challenges, the future is mortgaged in a way that young people risk to inherit a severely compromised economic system, a society without cohesion, and a planet damaged in its sustainability as a home for the whole human family.



2. The Holy See Delegation notes with deep concern predictions by the World Bank that during 2009, an additional 53 to 65 million people will be trapped in extreme poverty and that the number of people chronically hungry will exceed one billion, 800 million of whom live in rural areas where public health is weakest and where innovative health care initiatives are urgent . We can reasonably conclude that significant numbers of those extremely poor and hungry people will be more at risk of contracting both communicable and chronic, non-communicable diseases. Moreover, if they are faced with cutbacks in international aid or if there is an increased number of people seeking care, the already fragile public health systems in developing countries will not be able to respond adequately to the health needs of their most vulnerable citizens. In addressing this problem, even more than an expression of solidarity, it is a matter of justice to overcome the temptation to reduce public services for a short-term benefit against the long-term human cost. In the same line, aid for development should be maintained and even increased as a critical factor in renewing the economy and leading us out of the crisis.



Madame President,



3. Another key obstacle to achieving the internationally articulated goals in public health is to address the inequalities that exist both between countries and within countries, and between racial and ethnic groups. Tragically, women continue in many regions to receive poorer quality health care. This situation is well known to people and institutions working on the ground. The Catholic Church sponsors 5,378 hospitals, 18,088 health clinics, 15,448 homes for the elderly and disabled, and other health care programmes throughout the world, but especially in the most isolated and marginalized areas and among people who rarely enjoy access to health care provided under national, provincial or district level governmental health schemes. In this regard, special attention is given to Africa, where the Catholic Church has pledged to continue to stand alongside the poorest people in this continent in order to uphold the inherent dignity of all persons.



4. There is an increasing recognition that a plurality of actors, in the respect of the principle of subsidiarity, contribute to the implementation of the human right to primary health care. Among the civil society organizations assuring health care within various national systems, the programmes sponsored by the Catholic Church and other faith-based organizations stand out as key stakeholders. WHO officials have acknowledged that such organizations “provide a substantial portion of care in developing countries, often reaching vulnerable populations living under adverse conditions.” [1] However, despite their excellent and documented record in the field of HIV service delivery and primary health care, faith-based organizations do not receive an equitable share of the resources designated to support global, national and local health initiatives.



5. The mere quantitative tracking of aid flows and the multiplication of global health initiatives alone may not be sufficient to assure “Health for All”. Access to primary health care and affordable life-saving drugs is vital to improving global health and fostering a shared globalized response to the basic needs of all. In an increasingly interdependent world, even sickness and viruses have no boundaries, and therefore, greater global cooperation becomes not only a practical necessity, but more importantly, an ethical imperative of solidarity. However, we must be guided by the best healthcare tradition that respects and promotes the right to life from conception until natural death for all regardless of race, disability, nationality, religion, sex and socio-economic status. Failure to place the promotion of life at the center of health care decisions results in a society in which an individual’s absolute right to basic health care and life would be limited by the ability to pay, by the perceived quality of life and other subjective decisions which sacrifice life and health in exchange for short-term social, economic and political advantage.



6. In conclusion, Madame President, the Holy See Delegation wishes to call attention to the need for more than financial solutions to the challenges posed by the economic crisis to global efforts aimed at assuring universal access to health care. In his new encyclical Pope Benedict XVI states:

Economic activity cannot solve all social problems through the simple application of commercial logic . This needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good , for which the political community in particular must also take responsibility . [2]

An ethical approach to development is needed which implies a new model of global development centered on the human person rather than profit, and inclusive of the needs and aspirations of the entire human family.



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[1] DeCock, Kevin (2007), “Faith-based organizations play a major role in HIV/AIDS care and treatment in sub-Saharan Africa,” as quoted in press release by the World Health Organisation, 9 February 2007, Washington, D.C.

[2] Benedict XVI, Encyclical letter Caritas in veritate , n. 36.