NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN CITY, 19 (NE) "Before the usual prayer of the 'Regina Coeli', I want to highlight the tender filial love that they have had toward the Virgin Mary." The Pope's words before the Marian prayer highlighted the filial piety of the new saints he had just raised to the altars as exemplar testimonies of Christian life.

      Toward Mary "with faith and confidence Saint Agostina turned entrusting her the most difficult and seriously sick," the Pontiff affirmed about the Italian religious Sister. Continuing then with Saint Giovanni, he pointed out: "Love, love, love Mary, Saint Giovanni Calabria requested to his children, requesting to 'live' and to 'breathe' Mary." And, recalling the filial piety of Saint Marcelino Champagnat, the Pope concentrated his attention on the "motto" of the new saint: "Everything to Jesus through Mary, and Mary has everything through Jesus Christ."

      Upon concluding his brief address, the Pope recalled the grave situation in the Balkans, requesting the intercession of the Mother of God. "May Mary, that we invoked as Queen of Peace in these days of great concern for the conflict in Yugoslavia, obtain the gift of peace mainly for that beloved land, that suffers and is martyred. May the force of peacefulness and the coexistence of dialogue," he concluded, "prevail over ethnic violation and the violence of weapons."