POPE HOPES TO VISIT HOLY LAND DURING JUBILEE YEAR 2000

VATICAN CITY, JUN 29, 1999 (VIS) - Prior to praying the angelus at noon today, the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, Pope John Paul announced the publication tomorrow of his "Letter Concerning Pilgrimage to the Places Linked with the History of Salvation," and his desire to personally make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land during the Jubilee Year 2000.

"I would like to underline the exclusively religious and spiritual nature of such a pilgrimage, to which no other interpretation should be given. To visit the ancient Ur of the Chaldeans, the native land of Abraham, or Mount Sinai, symbol of the Exodus and the Covenant, and above all Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, means retracing the path of Divine Revelation."

The Pope, recalling that he had visited the Holy Land as archbishop of Krakow in 1965, said he has "a strong desire to go and pray in these holy places," especially "as a pilgrim Pope in the Year 2000. This is an intention I entrust to Mary Most Holy."

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