POPE RECEIVES STUDENTS, ALUMNI OF NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE

VATICAN CITY, JAN 8, 1999 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received the alumni of the Pontifical North American College, in Rome for their annual reunion, as well as the rector, faculty and students and the priests studying at the Casa Santa Maria dell'Umilta, the site of the first North American College.

"You have returned to Rome," he reminded the alumni, "where your priestly formation took place, to relive the profound experiences which shaped your identity and nourished your spirituality as priests."

The Holy Father recalled that "the Pontifical North American College was founded at a time when Catholics were a small and largely immigrant minority in the United States. Today, thanks to the tireless work of generations of clergy, religious and laity, the Church in your country enjoys unparalleled resources for proclaiming the Gospel and for bringing the rich inheritance of the Church's moral and social teaching to the great debates which are shaping your nation's future.

"The great challenge now facing American Catholics in every sector of national life and culture," he concluded, "is to bear a united and convincing public witness to those truths about the human person and human community which are revealed by God, accessible to reason and embodied in the founding documents of your Republic."

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