POPE VISITS PRESIDENT SHEVARDNADZE, MEETS WORLD OF CULTURE

VATICAN CITY, NOV 9, 1999 (VIS) - Following this morning's Mass in the Tbilisi sports arena, the Holy Father returned to the House of Charity where he had spent the night. He had lunch and later that afternoon, bade farewell to those who had hosted him in this newly-built one-story dwelling for the homeless.

At 4:45 p.m., local time, the Pope arrived at the Krtsanisi State Residence, a three-building complex situated in a large park on a hill overlooking the capital city of Tbilisi and used to welcome diplomats and foreign heads of State when they visit Georgia. He paid a courtesy visit to Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze with whom he had a private talk and exchanged gifts.

At 5:30 p.m. Pope John Paul went to a nearby building where he met with men and women of culture, science and the arts. "Culture is a reality born of self-transcendence," he said in his talk to them. "It is precisely in this movement of self-transcendence, of recognition of the other, of the need to communicate with the other, that culture is created. But this drive towards the other is possible only through love."

He highlighted "the contribution of Christianity to Georgian culture," in particular the fact that national literature "was almost exclusively religious in inspiration. ... Christians have always sought to create a culture which is fundamentally open to the eternal and transcendent, while at the same time attentive to the temporal, the concrete, the human."

Then, in a reference to Christ's tunic which is preserved in Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, the Pope observed that "the tradition according to which Georgians present at the crucifixion of Christ brought back from Jerusalem the seamless tunic of the Lord symbolizes as it were the nation's resolute aspiration to unity."

"We now see," he then remarked, "a process of globalization which tends to underestimate distinctiveness and variety, and which is marked by the rise of new forms of ethno-centrism and exaggerated nationalism. In such a situation, the challenge is to promote and pass on a living culture capable of fostering communication and brotherhood between different groups and peoples, and between the different fields of human endeavor."

In concluding remarks, the Holy Father encouraged the men and women of culture to "use their creativity for the promotion of life in all its truth and beauty and goodness."

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