PAPAL MESSAGE FOR WORLD DAY OF LITERACY

VATICAN CITY, SEP 8, 1999 (VIS) - Made public this afternoon was the Holy Father's annual message to the director general of UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) on the occasion of today's Thirty-Third International Day for Literacy. The French-language message, dated August 28 from Castelgandolfo, is addressed to Federico Mayor Zaragoza.

In the message, the Pope praises all those "men and women who, throughout the ages," have led the campaign against "the serious situation of illiteracy in the world." He also lauds the efforts made by UNESCO in this regard.

"At the dawn of the third millennium," he writes, "I invite all peoples to join together in fighting illiteracy, which is a heavy handicap for an important part of mankind, especially women and girls. In fact, up to recently, two-thirds of illiterate people were women and 70 percent of those children not attending schools were girls."

"The Church, for her part," John Paul II concludes, "pursuing the mission that Christ entrusted to her, hopes to continue to participate in educating young people and adults, side by side with men and women of good will."

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