Monday thru Friday at www.DailyCatholic.org See why so many consider the Daily CATHOLIC as the "USA Today for CATHOLICS!" e-mail: DailyCatholic@dailycatholic.org

Pope reinforces the need for peace to be permanent in the Balkans and in Asia

      Returning to his regular Angelus appearances at the Vatican, the Holy Father addressed the crowd assembled Sunday and reiterated the importance of a lasting peace in the Balkans. He emphasized there is no guarantees this peace will work and we all need to pray and trust in each other as God's faithful children who can trust each other and treat each other with the dignity of seeing Christ in everyone we meet. He included Asia in his request, especially India and Pakistan who both have their proverbial governmental finger on the nuclear trigger. For more, click on Peace needs prayer

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- During his Angelus audience on Sunday, June 20, Pope John Paul II offered prayers for peace in Europe, "which still bears the bloody wounds of the recent conflict in Yugoslavia," and in Asia, especially India and Pakistan. The Pope also gave his audience some reflections on his recent trip to Poland.

      "Let us all pray that we can consolidate the peace process in Europe," the Pope urged his listeners. He said that "only the gospel of love and peace which comes from God can bring about solidarity and peaceful accord among individuals and peoples." While he concentrated particularly on the Balkan crisis, he added a request for prayers for India and Pakistan, "where peace is gravely endangered." He asked for prayers that those two countries would "in the immediate future, do everything possible to stop the fighting, which brings violence and death."

      His 13-day trip through his native Poland had been "an unforgettable experience of faith and fraternity," the Pontiff said. He thanked everyone who had been involved in planning the trip or in helping to make it successful by meeting and praying with him. And he sad that the warmth of the crowds throughout Poland had moved and encouraged him,

      The Holy Father's Sunday audience was his first public appearance following his return from Poland. He had been scheduled to bless a new shrine of Divine Love just outside Rome, but that event was postponed for two weeks in order to give him more time to rest and recover from a bout with the flu.

Pope publishes theme of Jubilee 2000: Peace on earth to those on whom God's favor rests

     The Holy Father officially released the document that defines the theme for the first day of the new millennium - January 1, the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, New Year's Day and World Peace Day. It follows by a week the message the angels sang, "on earth peace among men of good will" (Luke 2: 14). The theme of world peace takes on even more significance with the recently signed peace agreement in the Balkans and overtures towards peace in other areas of the world from Indonesia to Africa to South America to the American classroom. For more, click on Papal proclamation on peace .

      VATICAN CITY, JUN 21 (ZENIT).- This morning John Paul II published the theme he chose for the coming World Day of Peace, to be held on January 1, 2000: "Peace on Earth to Those on Whom God's Favor Rests."

      According to a note published by the Holy See's Press Office, with this message "the Pope wishes peace to everyone and invites all to contribute effectively to the construction of peace from the first days of the Great Jubilee of the year 2000."

Peace and Jubilee

      "The last months of the second millennium are characterized by tragic and bloody conflicts in different parts of the world where the victims are in the great majority innocent civilians or brother nations. The Great Jubilee must become a time of intense prayer and renewed commitment to overcome war as an instrument for resolving differences,"continued the press release.

      According to the document, the last World Day for Peace of the millennium is an attempt to emphasize that "arms are inadequate to construct peace. Every day it is more urgent to find means to do away with conflicts and guarantee peaceful relations among peoples."

Peace in a Globalized World

      The Vatican text explains that "the great challenge of peace comes today in the context of a world that is living, on one hand, a process of globalization and, on the other, a paradoxical generalized fragmentation leading to social instability and insecurity. It is not sufficient to silence arms in order to have peace. Peace embraces all aspects of social life: development, the economy, human rights, the preservation of creation. To meet the modern challenges, new programs of peace and structures that are adapted to the new world configuration are necessary."

      Finally, the note clarifies that "without the elimination of misery and the integral development of all nations, peace will always be fragile. In fact, peace is founded on the human person, gifted with inalienable dignity, called to live with others in a society open to peaceful coexistence in diversity." ZE99062104

600 Priests from all around the world converge on Jerusalem today for clergy retreat

      Organized by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy the Church is hosting 600 priests from all parts of the globe in the fourth international meeting of priests, this one being held in the cradle of Christianity - Nazareth and Bethlehem and along the banks It is fitting that it will take place on the feast of the Birth of Saint John the Baptist for it was 2000 years ago that the Baptizer was born to Elizabeth and Zachary. For more, click on Holy Land Retreat.

      JERUSALEM, JUN 21 (ZENIT).- Following the meetings in Fatima, Portugal; Yamossoukro, Ivory Coast; and Guadalupe, Mexico, the 4th International Meeting of Priests will open tomorrow in Nazareth, in the Holy Land. Subsequent days of meetings meetings are planned for Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The event was organized by the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, presided by Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos.

      The meeting will be a week of intense spiritual life, in which more than 600 priests from all over the world will participate in moving liturgies, meditations and conferences in places where Jesus lived.

      The meeting, which takes place within the framework of preparations for the Great Jubilee of the year 2000, will begin with a Mass tomorrow morning in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth of Galilee, and will be followed in the afternoon by a meeting at the Mount of the Beatitudes and later in Capernaum, where Christ promised the Eucharist; as well as on the shores of Lake Tiberias, where Peter received primacy among the Apostles. The topic of the day will be the profession of faith: "I believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." The meditations will be centered on "Communion as the Characteristic of the Priesthood."

      On Wednesday the priests, who will celebrate Mass in the Basilica of the Annunciation, will meditate on the banks of the Jordan on the verse "I profess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins," analyzing the difference between the baptismal and ministerial priesthoods.

      The meeting will continue on Friday in Jerusalem, on Saturday in Bethlehem and on Sunday, once again in the Holy City, where it will conclude. ZE99062107

Rebels demand ransoms for the 62 remaining hostages, calling it taxes and fees to justify their blatant extortion

      The rebels confirmed what Cali, Colombia's Archbishop Isaias Duarte Cansino feared and suspected when he excommunicated the Cuban-backed National Liberation Army rebels for kidnapping 140 right out of Mass on Pentecost Sunday in a church in South Cali. That fear is that the rebels want a ransom for the remaining hostages being held. Even though they already are under interdict, their self described leader Gabino traveled personally to Rome to meet with high Vatican officials and assure the Holy See all the hostages would be freed. He lied and now the guerrillas' word are nothing but empty promises and this has thrown a crimp in negotiating the hostages' release, especially since Colombia's President Andres Pastrana has refused to play hardball with the rebels whose threats don't sit well with government or Church officials. . For more, click on Colombia rebels.

      BOGOTA (CWNews.com) - A senior leader of a Colombian rebel group admitted on Friday to seeking ransom for some hostages taken in raids on a Catholic church last month and an airliner in April, prompting Colombia's president to break off negotiations.

      Antonio Garcia, deputy commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN), confirmed prior reports that his group is demanding money from the families of some of the 62 remaining hostages. The group had already released dozens of other hostages. "The government charges taxes and fees. .. We also have the right to do so," he said.

      President Andres Pastrana cut off dialogue with the ELN, who have released hostages in small dribs and drabs since the church raid in Cali on May 30. "I reject most vehemently and categorically the extortive and careless attitude assumed by this armed group," Pastrana said in a nationally televised speech.

For more headlines and articles, we suggest you go to the Catholic World News site at the CWN home page and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and the features, dossiers and Daily Dispatches at ZENIT International News Agency. CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.

    Dear children! Also today I call you to convert and to more firmly believe in God. Children, you seek peace and pray in different ways, but you have not yet given your hearts to God for Him to fill them with His love. So, I am with you to teach you and to bring you closer to the love of God. If you love God above all else, it will be easy for you to pray and to open your hearts to Him. Thank you for having responded to my call.
For more on Medjugorje, click on MEDJUGORJE AND MORE

Click here to return to SECTION ONE or click here to return to the graphics front page of this issue.

June 22, 1999 volume 10, no. 120   DAILY CATHOLIC