POPE WELCOMES EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN ARCHBISHOP

VATICAN CITY, JAN 18, 1998 (VIS) - Newly appointed Evangelical Lutheran Archbishop Jukka Paarma of Turku and Finland was welcomed this morning to the Vatican by the Holy Father, who recalled his 1989 visit to the cathedral of Turku, calling it "an event that greatly strengthened the relations between the Lutheran Church of Finland and the Catholic Church."

"Your presence here today," the Pope continued in English, "is a positive sign that these relations will continue to become even stronger as we strive to move forward in our joint quest for the restoration of that unity which Jesus Christ desires for his followers.

"As the Third Millennium rapidly approaches," he concluded, "we are conscious of the need to commit ourselves ever more firmly and irrevocably to the noble goal of Christian unity, and we are more aware of the beneficial effects that this unity will have on the new evangelization of Europe and the world."

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