POPE SAYS EUCHARIST IS SECRET OF LOVE, URGES RESPONSE TO THE NEEDS OF REFUGEES

According to Pope Benedict XVI, the Eucharist is the secret to the all-embracing love of the Catholic Church. Addressing the crowds gathered on Sunday to pray the midday Angelus with him in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father said "from communion with the Eucharistic Christ emerges the charity that transforms our lives and supports all on the journey toward the heavenly homeland." The Pope, speaking from the window of his study, dedicated his weekly Angelus address to the Eucharist, on the day many countries celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, or the Holy Eucharist, the Body of Christ. He said that the Eucharist which is destined for those who are baptized does not exhaust its radius of action in the ambit of the Church, because the Lord Jesus gives himself 'for the life of the world.'"
After praying the Angelus, the Pope appealed to Christian communities to respect the rights of refugees and respond to their needs. Addressing the issue, two days before the United Nations World Refugee Day, the Holy Father drew the international community's attention to "the conditions of so many people, forced to flee from their own lands because of grave forms of violence." The Pontiff expressed the hope "that the rights of these people will always be respected" and encouraged "ecclesial communities to respond to their needs."
The 2005 report of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, published this month, reflects a reduction in the number of refugees worldwide, which fell from 9.5 million in 2004 to 8.4 million in 2005. The U.N. report explained, however, that the number has increased of people who live in situations similar to that of refugees, but in their own countries. About 6.6 million people in 16 countries were displaced within their national borders because of conflicts, up from 5.4 million in 13 countries at the end of 2004.