CLERGY, RELIGIOUS AND LAY LEADERS ARE "PILLARS" OF THE DIOCESE

VATICAN CITY, MAY 30, 1999 (VIS) - Calling them the "pillars" of the diocesan community, the Pope met at 5 p.m. in Ancona's St. Cyriacus Cathedral with the clergy, religious and representatives of the laity involved in diocesan pastoral ministries. He exhorted them to be "deeply united to your bishop," to respond with joy to their particular charisms and ministries and to support inter-parish collaboration.

The Pope, noting that St. Cyriacus Cathedral is currently celebrating its millennium anniversary, said that "as a temple of stone which has defied the centuries, it is also the mother Church who welcomes the entire community composed of 'living stones for the building of a spiritual edifice'." He then pointed out "several paths for fulfilling this exalted undertaking."

"Above all," he went on, "I exhort you to be ever more deeply united to your bishop. Communion in thought, beliefs and initiatives is the greatest gift to the Lord from His Church, the substance of the life of the Christian community and the goal of her entire mission." He said that every member of the faithful is called to communion with the bishop, who is "Christ's vicar and delegate."

"I also invite you," the Pope added, "to respond with joy to the particular vocation which God has given each of you. With the multiplicity of your ministries and charisms, you are the sign of God's unforeseeable love," of the one Spirit "who, according to his own richness and the needs of the ministries, gives his different gifts for the welfare of the Church." The Pope asked all "to respond with generosity, creativity and responsibility to the vocation received in order to become efficacious instruments of communion and to offer a joyous witness of faith to non-believers."

Lastly, John Paul II suggested that "another path to the growth and building of unity in the diocesan community consists of inter-parish collaboration. ... Generous and systematic collaboration among parishes, beyond favoring ecclesial communion, represents a strong element of growth for the life of the parish community itself."

PV-ANCONA;PRIESTS; RELIGIOUS; LAITY;...;CATHEDRAL;VIS;19990531;Word: 350;