MESSAGE FOR WORLD YOUTH DAY

VATICAN CITY, JAN 9, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was a Message from the Holy Father for the 14th World Youth Day which will be held on Palm Sunday, March 28, and whose theme is "The Father loves you."

"God loves the world!" writes the Pope. "And in spite of the refusals of which it is capable, it will continue to be loved until the end. 'The Father has loved you' from the beginning and will always love you: this is the incredible novelty."

John Paul II asks young people, in the Church and in different circumstances, to be 'credible witnesses of the Father's love. Make it visible in your decisions and behavior, in the way in which you welcome and serve people, and in the faithful respect of the will of God and his commandments."

Having recalled that before returning to the Father, Jesus entrusted the Sacrament of Reconciliation to the Church, the Pope states: "To obtain God's forgiveness, it is not enough however to repent in one's heart. ... Recognition of sin also comes through a concrete sacramental sign: repentance and confession of sin, with the intention of leading a new life, before the ministry of the Church."

"Unfortunately, the more people today lose the sense of sin, the less they have recourse to the forgiveness of God. Many problems and difficulties of our times are a result of this. This year, I invite you to rediscover the beauty and richness of the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, meditating on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, where not only sin is highlighted but also the tenderness of God and his mercy."

Having recalled that in his Apostolic Letter "Tertio Millennio Adveniente" (1994), he exhorts Christians to "lay greater emphasis on the Church's preferential option for the poor and outcast," he invites young people to carry out "concrete initiatives of solidarity and sharing alongside and with the poorest. Generously participate in one of the projects to which your contemporaries in various countries are committed." This "may be the immediately visible expression of an important decision, that of determinedly directing your lives towards God and your brothers and sisters."

In conclusion, he writes that the 14th World Youth Day, which will be celebrated in local churches, will be the last before the Jubilee. "I ask that it may be for each one of you an occasion for a renewed encounter with the Lord of life and with his Church."

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