PAPAL LETTER: PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY PLACES

VATICAN CITY, JUN 30, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was the Letter of the Holy Father concerning "Pilgrimage to the Places Linked to the History of Salvation," which was announced in yesterday's angelus. It is dated June 29, solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, has been translated into Italian, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish and is 16 pages long.

In the document, John Paul II expresses his desire to travel, on the occasion of the Jubilee, the route that marks the history of salvation, from the ancient Ur to Athens where Paul, Apostle of the people, preached. The pivotal point of the journey will be the holy places, which the Pope visited in 1965 when he was archbishop of Krakow.

"To go in a spirit of prayer from one place to another," writes the Holy Father, "in the area marked especially by God's intervention, ... gives us a vivid sense of a God who has gone before us and leads us on, who himself set out on man's path, a God who does not look down on us from on high, but who became our travelling companion."

"For this reason, in the perspective of the two thousandth anniversary of the Incarnation, I have a strong desire to go personally to pray in the most important places which, from the Old to the new Testament, have seen God's interventions, which culminate in the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ."

The Pope goes on to describe the itinerary of his pilgrimage: "Ur, the place of Abraham's origins, ... the famous monastery of Saint Catherine, on Sinai, near the mountain of the Covenant, which in a way speaks of the entire mystery of the Exodus, the enduring paradigm of the new Exodus which was to be fully accomplished on Golgotha." And, from the New Testament: "Nazareth, the town linked to the actual moment of the Incarnation and the place where Jesus grew. ... Bethlehem, where Christ was born and the shepherds and the wise men gave voice to the adoration of all humanity. ... Jerusalem, the place of the death on the Cross and of the Ressurection of the Lord Jesus."

Of this particularly important stage on his journey, the Pope writes: "There I shall contemplate the places where Christ gave his life and took it up again in the Ressurection, imparting to us the gift of His Spirit." Among the places in Jerusalem "I will have to visit the Upper room ... a return to the very origins of the Church."
The last stage of the Holy Father's pilgrimage will be the two cities that were important "for the infant Church and which saw the missionary outreach of the first Christian community," in particular the two cities linked to the life of Paul, Apostle of the People, "Damascus, the place which recalls his conversion (and) Athens, where Paul gave his magnificent speech in the Areopagus."

John Paul II expresses his hope that, "at least in its main points," this ideal plan can be put into effect. "It would be an exclusively religious pilgrimage in its nature and purpose, and I would be saddened if anyone were to attach other meanings to this plan of mine."

The pilgrimage to the holy places thus becomes a highly meaningful experience and in a sense is evoked by every other Jubilee pilgrimage. The Church cannot forget her roots. Indeed, she must return to them again and again if she is to remain completely faithful to God's plan."

The "deep bond" which Christians have with Jews also forms part of this focus on the Holy Land. From the Jews, the Pope says, "Christ came according to the flesh."

The Holy Father explains that "much ground has been covered ... since the Second Vatican Council, in opening a fruitful dialogue with the people whom God chose as the first recipients of His promises and of the Covenant. The Jubilee must be another opportunity to deepen the sense of the bonds that unite us, helping us to remove once and for all the misunderstandings which, sad to say, have so often through the centuries marked with bitterness the relationship between Christians and Jews."

The Pope adds that the Holy Land is also important for Muslims, thus manifesting his desire that the visit to the holy places "will provide an opportunity to meet them as well."

John Paul II closes the Letter by stressing that during the pilgrimage he wishes "to be welcomed as a pilgrim and brother not only by the Catholic communities, ... but also by the other Churches which have lived uninterruptedly in the Holy Places and have been their custodians with fidelity and love of the Lord."

He concludes: "More than any other pilgrimage which I have made, the one I am about to undertake ... will be marked by the desire expressed in Christ's prayer to the Father that his disciples 'may all be one'. ... For this reason, I trust that all our brothers and sisters in faith ... will see in my pilgrim steps in the land travelled by Christ a 'doxology' for the salvation which we have all received, and I would be happy if we could gather together in the places of our common origin, to bear witness to Christ our unity and to confirm our mutual commitment to the restoration of full communion."

JPII-LETTER;PILGRIMAGE;...;...;VIS;19990630;Word: 900;