JOHN PAUL II MAKES LAST PARISH VISIT BEFORE THE JUBILEE

VATICAN CITY, DEC 12, 1999 (VIS) - This morning the Pope made his last pastoral visit to a parish community in Rome before the start of the Holy Year, visiting the parish of Sts. Urban and Lawrence at Prima Porta.

Making reference in his homily to John the Baptist's call to prepare the way for the Lord, the Holy Father said: "With a light heart, let us hasten towards the Great Jubilee, towards the year of grace in which the whole Church will ring out with a great hymn of praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

John Paul II went on to recall that many elderly people live in the neighborhood. "They frequently welcome their married children into their homes, children who have difficulty in finding homes elsewhere. In this way, a broad and rich family community comes into being, one in which grandparents, children and grandchildren live together. I hope that this communal existence may, as well as offering reciprocal material support, also favor the transmission of those human and Christian values that constitute the precious heritage of the beloved Italian nation."

"In this third Sunday of Advent," he went on, "the whole diocese of Rome is celebrating the day for new churches. ... Let us pray to the Lord that, through the support of everyone, those areas of Rome presently without an adequate parish center may, as soon as possible, have a new place of worship. Let us also pray that each parish will be always, but especially during the coming Jubilee year, a community capable of bearing witness to the Gospel, attentive to people's problems, open and hospitable."

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