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31-Jan-2000 -- Vatican Information Service
WIDESPREAD EXTREME POVERTY IS A SCANDALVATICAN CITY, JAN 29, 2000 (VIS) - In New York on January 26, Bishop Diarmuid Martin, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, spoke at a panel discussion of ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council of the United Nations) on the Contribution of the U.N. System to Combating Poverty. Bishop Martin highlighted that "we cannot repeat often enough that the persistence of such widespread extreme poverty is a scandal." In talking of the fight against poverty, the bishop affirmed that "every sector of modern society is called to assume its appropriate responsibility: humanitarian organizations and religious groups but also business and the private sector; governments and international organizations, but also civil society ... and those living in poverty themselves, whose voice can so easily be ignored." Bishop Martin went on to refer to the phenomenon of corruption, saying: "International instruments to identify and punish corruption must be put in place." In closing, he stated that armed conflict and military expenditure
represented an area in which progress could still be made: "The statistics are
bluntly clear. Conflict produces poverty, peace opens the path to prosperity.
There can be no agenda for development which does not address an agenda for
peace. The question of the proliferation of small arms must be placed more
clearly on the international development agenda and not limited just to a minor
disarmament slot." Click here to share this news story with a friend. <<< Just Another Pontifical
Act...
So, does this make the parking lot,
"HOLY" ???
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31-Jan-2000 -- Vatican Information Service
POPE JOHN PAUL INAUGURATES NEW VATICAN PARKING LOTVATICAN CITY, JAN 31, 2000 (VIS) - This morning, in the presence of civil and ecclesiastical authorities, the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, and representatives of the company who built the new Vatican underground parking lot, Pope John Paul visited and inaugurated the site for tourist busses and cars which was built on Janiculum Hill for the Jubilee Year. At 11:30 a.m. he arrived by car at level "0" and took an elevator to the fifth floor, where he addressed those present. He thanked the companies who undertook building the parking lot on property owned by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, whose prefect, Cardinal Jozef Tomko, also spoke to those assembled. The Pope pointed out that the aim of the parking lot "is to facilitate the
pilgrims' access to the Vatican, especially during this Jubilee year, but also
to ease traffic circulation in a key point of the city. ... I therefore wish to
express great pleasure for a work which offers notable urban advantages without
damaging Janiculum Hill's well-known panorama, and I willingly join all of you
in thanking the Lord for this." Click here to share this news story with a friend. <<< ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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