POPE WELCOMES STAFF OF VATICAN LIBRARY AND SECRET ARCHIVES

VATICAN CITY, JAN 15, 1999 (VIS) - The Pope met this morning with 350 staff members of the Vatican Secret Archives and the Vatican Apostolic Library and, in his talk to them, recalled the "venerable antiquity of the institutions to which you belong" and "the close link between them and the Apostolic See."

He pointed out that, not only do they preserve and pass on the books, manuscripts and papal and curial acts housed in the archives and library, above all they "place at the disposition of the Holy See and of scholars of the entire world (these) same treasures of culture and art."

The Holy Father then underlined two qualities which, he said, "pontiffs have seen in the archives and library. ... The first is the relationship between the preserved texts and the exercise of the government and ministry of the Apostolic See, particularly the pontifical magisterium. These venerable texts contain and transmit in a certain way the very memory of the Church and therefore the continuity of her apostolic service throughout the centuries, with its light and shadows."

"The second quality," he affirmed, "is the service that you lend to the evangelization of culture. ... We must find a way to make the values which the Gospel has communicated to us, together with those which come from true humanism, ... reach men and women of culture."

John Paul II then spoke of the various exhibits and shows they are organizing in relation to the Jubilee, and closed his remarks with "a heartfelt appeal": "Love, respect and defend this great patrimony built up over the centuries by the Roman pontiffs. This is a precious and inalienable patrimony of the Holy See, which must be jealously guarded. Only the Supreme Pontiff can decide the disposition of this patrimony.

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