From the Vatican Information Service:

VATICAN CITY, 11 NOV 2009 (VIS) – At the end of today’s general audience, the Pope remarked upon the current situation in Sri Lanka, six months after the end of the conflict that bloodied the country.

“We note with satisfaction the efforts being made by the authorities over recent weeks, to facilitate the return home of people displaced by the war. I strongly encourage an acceleration in this process and ask all citizens to work towards rapid pacification in full respect for human rights, and towards a just political solution to the challenges still facing the country.

“I trust, moreover, that the international community will strive to meet the humanitarian and economic needs of Sri Lanka, and I raise my prayers to Our Lady of Madhu, that she may continue to watch over that beloved land”.

At midday today, following the Eucharistic concelebration with Synod Fathers in the Vatican Basilica for the opening of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, Benedict XVI appeared at the window of his study to pray the Angelus with faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
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>em>From Vatican News Service. Reprinted with permission.

Made public today was a transcription of the Pope’s video message to participants in the UN summit on climate change, which was held in New York on 22 September.

“I wish to reflect today upon the relationship between the Creator and ourselves as guardians of His creation”, says Benedict XVI speaking English. “In so doing I also wish to offer my support to leaders of governments and international agencies who are meeting at the United Nations to discuss the urgent issue of climate change.
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Today Pope Benedict XVI released a teaching letter (encyclical) on integral human development called Charity in truth (Caritas in veritate in Latin). Integral human development is the development of the whole person (body, mind and spirit) and of every person. Like a father who offers guidance to his family, in this letter our Holy Father is offering guidance to the human family as it faces the global economic crisis, the global ecological crisis, and the scandal of global poverty. The Pope reminds us that the human person is “the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life.” (no. 25)
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CRS President Ken Hackett today welcomed the Papal Encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth): “The Holy Father speaks for us all at CRS when he says that ‘openness to life is at the center of all true development.’ We also echo his call for more and better development and that food and access to water are universal rights of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination.”
You can read the full text of the encyclical at:
English.
Spanish

From the Vatican Information Service:

VATICAN CITY, (VIS) – After praying the Angelus at midday Sunday, the Pope recalled how from 24 to 26 June a “United Nations conference will be held in New York on the economic and financial crisis and its impact on development”.
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Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks today at the “Regina Pacis” Center in the Jordanian capital city of Amman. The center, founded by Bishop Salim Sayegh, Latin patriarchal vicar of Jordan, is dedicated to the social rehabilitation of people with disabilities.
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Today, April 2, 2009, marks the fourth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II. The video above is a moving tribute to a servant of God beloved throughout the world.

Hat tip: Whispers in the Loggia

Excerpt from Catholic News Service report on Pope Benedict’s letter to G20 leaders:

“In the March 30 letter, Pope Benedict emphasized that participants in the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in London April 2-3 must find a way out of the global economic crisis but must avoid selfish or protectionist solutions.”

“‘If a key element of the crisis is a deficit of ethics in economic structures, the same crisis teaches us that ethics is not external to the economy, but internal, and that the economy cannot function if it does not bear within it an ethical component,” said the pope.”

Read the full story here.

From the Vatican Information Service:

Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for April is: “That the Lord may bless farmers’ work with an abundant harvest and sensitise the richer populations to the drama of hunger in the world”.

His mission intention is: “That the Christians who operate in the territories where the conditions of the poor, the weak and the women and children are most tragic, may be signs of hope, thanks to their courageous testimony to the Gospel of solidarity and love”.

- Thanks to John Rivera