Sept. 8-13

SUNDAY

At this Sunday's Angelus in Castelgandolfo Pope John Paul II pointed to the role of eastern Christianity in providing answers to today's “pressing need to return to our roots, the intimate desire for silence, for contemplation, for the search for the absolute.”

Contemporary man “sees that science, technology and economic well-being are not enough,” said the Pope. “The goods produced by industrial civilization can make our lives more comfortable, but they do not satisfy the needs of the heart.”

“To this need, Christianity has always offered a response…. Today I would like to underline the contribution of oriental Christianity, whose spirituality merits being ever better known, not only in its exterior traits, but especially in its deeper motivations.”

“The Fathers of the East,” the pontiff continued, “set out from the awareness that genuine spiritual commitment is not reduced to an encounter with the self … but must be a path of obedient listening to the Spirit of God. Actually, they maintained, man is not thoroughly himself if he closes himself off to the Holy Spirit…. Man reaches his fullness only by opening himself to God.”

“The true enemy of this inner ascent is sin,” he concluded. “It is necessary to defeat it in order to make room for the Spirit of God…. This is a difficult path, but the finishing line is a great experience of freedom.”

After today's Angelus, the Pope spoke about “the important peace talks in Northern Ireland that will resume this week.”

“Both communities,” he said, referring to Catholics and Protestants, “wish for the end of the violence. They have demonstrated that peace and reconciliation are possible if everyone has the courage to embrace the path of dialogue, mutual comprehension, respect for each other's legitimate rights, and above all, for human rights.”

MONDAY

The Pope accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, presented by Bishop John McDowell on having reached the age limit.

TUESDAY

John Paul nominated Msgr. Nicholas Di Marzio as auxiliary to the archbishop of Newark, N.J.

WEDNESDAY

This morning during the general audience in St. Peter's Square, John Paul II reflected on his recent apostolic trip to Hungary on Sept. 6-7, a pilgrimage whose theme was “Christ is our hope!” The Pope told the 14,000 pilgrims present that the primary goal of his trip was the celebration of the millennium of the arch-abbey of Pannonhalma, a Benedictine monastery that “was for centuries a relevant beacon of culture and played an important role in the defense of freedom and truth.”

He also highlighted “the important ecumenical value” of the pilgrimage to Pannonhalma. The ancient abbey, he said, “is a witness to the period in which Christians of the East and West were still in full communion. This prompts us, as we prepare for the Jubilee Year of 2000, to remember this full unity in order to overcome completely the divisions that surged afterward.”

In the Eucharistic celebration in Gyor on Sept. 7, “I renewed to the Hungarian Church, in the name of Christ, the Good Shepherd, a fervent exhortation to hope, pointing to the example of those who, in decades past, paid personally, even with their lives, for their resistance to violence and brutality.” The Pope gave the examples of Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty and the Servant of God Vilmos Apor, bishop of Gyor, whose beatification process has reached its conclusive stage.

FRIDAY

This morning in Castelgandolfo, the Holy Father received a group of bishops from Indonesia, in Rome on their ad limina visit.

He spoke of the “complementarity of roles between clergy and laity…. Priests should be careful not to usurp the laity's role in the temporal order, while the lay faithful should avoid a kind of ‘clericalization'which overshadows the specific dignity of the lay state founded on baptism and confirmation.” He went on: “When the laity receive a solid Christian formation, they are equipped to play a constructive role in the life of the nation, with a distinct motivation and force.”

“A serious challenge to your ministry in relation to the family,” John Paul II observed, “is the threat posed by aggressive programs of population control, rooted in a utilitarian approach to the value of life itself.” Methods of orienting demography must “respect the primary and inalienable responsibility of married couples and families' … and should exclude the use of methods ‘which fail to respect the person and fundamental human rights.’”

The Pope urged the bishops to teach the young people of Indonesia “to be the evangelizers of their own generation. Listen attentively to their aspirations, their doubts and struggles, as well as their reasoned criticism. Above all, teach them to pray-with pure hearts, lively faith, firm confidence and persevering vigilance.” (VIS)