(Vatican Radio) The Holy See signed on Friday a Comprehensive Agreement with the State of Palestine, which deals with essential aspects of the life and activity of the Catholic Church in Palestine.
The formal signing of the Agreement has been years in the making, following the Basic Agreement signed on 15 February 2000.
Doctor Riad Malki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine, addressed the delegation of the Holy See, represented by Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States for the Vatican City State, at the signing ceremony.
Below is Dr. Malki’s address:
Speech by Dr. Riad Malki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine, on the occasion of the signing of a Comprehensive Agreement between the State of Palestine and the Holy See
26 June 2015
Your Excellency Archbishop Gallagher,
Esteemed members of the delegations of the Holy See and the State of Palestine,
We are pleased and honored to have officially signed the Comprehensive Agreement between the State of Palestine and the Holy See, following a number of years of intensive negotiations in a spirit of partnership. This agreement is a historic agreement. It would have not been possible without the support and personal dedication of President Abbas, and the blessing of His Holiness, Pope Francis, to our efforts in this regard.
This agreement builds on the special relations between the State of Palestine and the Holy See, and expands further on the Basic Agreement signed between the PLO and the Holy See in the year 2000.
The agreement is comprehensive. Its provisions span the shared vision of the two Parties for peace and justice in the region, the protection of fundamental freedoms, the status and protection of Holy Sites, and the means of enhancing and furthering the presence and activities of the Roman Catholic Church in the State of Palestine.
For the first time, the Agreement includes an official recognition by the Holy See of Palestine as a State, in recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, freedom and dignity in an independent state of their own, free from the shackles of occupation. It also supports the vision for peace and justice in the region in accordance with international law and based on two states, living side by side in peace and security, on the basis of the 1967 borders.
The agreement reinforces our bond with new and unprecedented provisions related to the special status of Palestine as the birthplace of Christianity and as the cradle of monolithic religions. It embodies our shared values of freedom, dignity, tolerance, co-existence, and equality of all. This comes at a time when extremism, barbaric violence, and ignorance threaten the social fabric and cultural identity of the region and indeed of human heritage. At this backdrop, the State of Palestine reiterates its commitment to combat extremism, and to promote tolerance, freedom of consciousness and religion, and to equally safeguard the rights of all its citizens. These are the values and principles that reflect the beliefs and aspirations of the Palestinian people and its leadership, and they are the pillars upon which we continue to endeavor to establish our independent and democratic State.
This agreement consolidates and improves the current state of affairs, in which the Roman Catholic Church enjoys rights, privileges, immunities, and free access. It upholds the Church’s standing as an important contributor to the lives of many Palestinians.
This Agreement is the product of a number of years of detailed and exhaustive negotiations between both of our teams, in a spirit of friendship and partnership. I would like to take this opportunity to extend our thanks and appreciation to them and to all others who contributed to this effort, for their hard work and commitment. In particular to the members of the Palestinian team composed of Ambassador Rawan Sulaiman, Ambassador Issa Kassissieh, Ammar Hijazi and Azem Bishara, and to the team of the Holy See, in particular Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, Archbishop Antonio Franco, Msgr. Alberto Ortega, and Fr. Emil Salayta.
On behalf of President Abbas and the Palestinian leadership, I wish to reiterate the commitment of the State of Palestine to implement this historic agreement, in both letter and spirit, and to further deepen our partnership.
Congratulations and thank you.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received a group of some 230 participants for the World Meeting of the International Conference of Catholic Guiding on Friday. The Guides are in Rome from June 25 th -30 th , to explore the theme of living the joy of the Gospel as a Guide.
The international umbrella group for Catholic Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, ICCG, officially came into existence on the Feast of the Epiphany, 1965, in Rome, when twenty-one Girl Guide associations established the International Catholic Conference of Guiding, signing its Charter, its Statutes and approving its Internal Rules.
In remarks prepared for the occasion and delivered to the group in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, Pope Francis thanked the Guides for choosing a theme rooted in and responding to his Apostolic exhortation, Evangelii gaudium , and praised the program of the Meeting. “It is a wonderful program,” he said. To proclaim to others, through the witness of our lives, that encountering Jesus makes us happy; that meeting Jesus frees us and heals us; that meeting Jesus opens us to others and encourages us to proclaim this especially to the poorest among us, to those who are farthest away, most lonely and abandoned.”
The Holy Father went on to encourage the participants in their work of recovering, nurturing and furthering the authentic vision of womanhood, in the Church and in the world. “Today it is very important that womanhood be properly appreciated,” he said. “Here, too,” he continued, “the role of educational associations like yours – that serve girls particularly – is absolutely crucial for the future.” In a world in which ideologies contrary to the nature and God’s plan for marriage and family, Pope Francis said, “It is therefore necessary to educate girls not only to the beauty and grandeur of their vocation as women, in a fair and differentiated relationship between man and woman, but also to take on important responsibilities in the Church and in society.” The Holy Father said that, in places where women are still in a position of inferiority, and even exploited and abused, Guides are certainly called to play a major role in the promotion and education of women.
Pope Francis concluded with an appeal to the Guides, calling on them to remain open to the chance that God might be calling them to religious life. “I ask you also not to forget the necessary and explicit openness of your pedagogy to the possibility of a life consecrated to the Lord, of which the movement of the Guides has been so fruitful in its history.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 26 June 2015 (VIS) – Forty-six metropolitan archbishops have been nominated by the Holy Father to receive the pallium this year, imposed every 29 June, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles, in the Vatican Basilica: Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Cologne, Germany Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, archbishop of Valencia, Spain Archbishop Julian Leow Beng Kim of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Archbishop Eduardo Eliseo Martin of Rosario, Argentina Archbishop Florentino Galang Lavarias of San Fernando, Philippines Archbishop Anthony Pappusamy of Madurai, India Archbishop Sevastianos Rossolatos of Athens, Greece Archbishop Thomas Aquino Manyo Maeda of Osaka, Japan Archbishop Carlos Osoro Sierra of Madrid, Spain Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Ireland Archbishop Anthony Colin Fisher, O.P., of Sydney, Australia Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, U.S.A. Archbishop Oscar Omar Aparicio Cespedes of Cochabamba, Bolivia Archbishop Jose Antonio Fernandez Hurtado of Durango, Mexico Archbishop Stane Zore, O.F.M., of Ljubljana, Slovenia Archbishop Djalwana Laurent Lompo of Niamey, Nigeria Archbishop Vincenzo Pelvi of Foggia-Bovino, Italy Archbishop Richard Daniel Alarcon Urrutia of Cuzco, Peru Archbishop Jean Mbarga of Yaounde, Cameroon Archbishop Edmundo Ponciano Valenzuela Mellid, S.D.B., of Asuncion, Paraguay Archbishop Beatus Kinyaiya, O.F.M. Cap., of Dodoma, Tanzania Archbishop Max Leroy Mesidor of Cap-Haitien, Haiti Archbishop Kieran O’Reilley, S.M.A., of Cashel, Ireland Archbishop Filomeno do Nascimento Vieira Dias of Luanda, Angola Archbishop Martin Musonde Kivuva of Mombasa, Kenya Archbishop Vicente Jimenez Zamora of Zaragoza, Spain Archbishop Benjamin Ndiaye of Dakar, Senegal Archbishop Jose Antonio Peruzzo of Curitiba, Brazil Archbishop Menghesteab Tesfamariam, M.C.C.J., of Asmara, Eritrea Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg, Germany Archbishop Juan Nsue Edjang Maye of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea Archbishop Yustinus Harjosusanto, M.S.F., of Samarinda, Indonesia Archbishop Freddy Antonio de Jesus Breton Martinez of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic Archbishop Charles Jude Scicluna of Malta, Malta Archbishop David Macaire, O.P., of Fort-de-France, Martinique, France Archbishop Alojzij Cvikl. S.J., of Maribor, Slovenia Archbishop Fulop Kocsis of Hajdudorog for Catholics of Byzantine Rite, Hungary Archbishop John Charles Wester of Santa Fe, U.S.A. Archbishop Denis Grondin of Rimouski, Canada Archbishop Francescantonio Nole, O.F.M. Conv., of Cosenza-Bisignano, Italy Archbishop Celso Morga Iruzubieta of Merida-Badajoz, Spain Archbishop Gustavo Rodriguez Vega of Yucatan, Mexico Archbishop-elect Erio Castellucci of Modena-Nonantola, Italy Archbishop Heiner Koch of Berlin, Germany Archbishop Lionginas Virbalas, S.J., of Kaunas, Lithuania Archbishop Thomas Ignatius Macwan of Gandhinagar, India….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received a group of some 230 participants for the World Meeting of the International Conference of Catholic Guiding on Friday. The Guides are in Rome from June 25th-30th, to explore the theme of living the joy of the Gospel as a Guide. The international umbrella group for Catholic Girl Guides and…
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(Vatican Radio) The Church can only become a true community if its members are willing to get their hands dirty and include the excluded. That was Pope Francis’ message during his homily at the Santa Marta Mass on Friday morning, as he reflected on the Gospel passage about Jesus healing the man with leprosy.
Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report:
Pope Francis noted that the miracle, in St Matthew’s Gospel, of Jesus touching and healing the leper takes place in front of the doctors of the law who considered the man to be ‘unclean’. Leprosy, the Pope said, was like a life sentence, since curing a leper was thought to be as hard as raising someone from the dead. Lepers were excluded from society, yet Jesus stretches out his hand and shows us what it means to be close to such people.
We can’t be a community, we can’t make peace, and we can’t do good without being close to people, the Pope stressed. Jesus could have just said to the leper, ‘You are healed’, but instead he reaches out his hand and touches him, becoming ‘unclean’ himself. This is the mystery of Jesus, the Pope continued, that he takes upon himself our uncleanliness, our sin, our exclusion to become close to us.
The Gospel passage also notes that Jesus asks the cured man not to tell anyone, but to show himself to the priest and ‘offer the gift that Moses prescribed’ in the law as proof for them. Pope Francis explained that Jesus not only gets his hands dirty but he also instructs the man to go to the priest so that he could be included in the Church and in society again. Jesus never excludes anyone, the Pope said, but rather he excludes himself in order to include us sinners.
Finally Pope Francis noted the reactions of the people around Jesus, many of whom are amazed at his words and follow him. Others, he said, watch from a distance with hardened hearts to criticize and condemn him, while others would like to draw close to Jesus but lack the courage to do so. To these people, Jesus holds out his hand, as he holds it out to all of us, taking on our sins to become one of us. Do we know how to draw near to people, the Pope asked? Do we have the strength and courage to reach out and touch those who are excluded? This is the meaning of a Christian community and this is the question each one of us – priests, bishops, religious, all of us – must ask ourselves.
(from Vatican Radio)…