WORLD YOUTH DAY: "THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S JUBILEE"

VATICAN CITY, JAN 15, 2000 (VIS) - Today, John Paul II received in audience 300 participants in the second meeting of people involved in pastoral ministry to young people. Representatives from various episcopal conferences and from ecclesial movements, associations and communities are all taking part in the meeting which is promoted by the Pontifical Council for the Laity and is dedicated to preparations for the fifteenth World Youth Day.

The Pope greeted the participants and reminded them that World Youth Days, which began in 1985, "now constitute an important engagement in the pilgrimage of the younger generations." The Pope continued, saying that this year in particular "World Youth Day has its place within the spiritual itinerary of the Jubilee and thus becomes the 'Young People's Jubilee': a privileged moment to contemplate together the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, ... and to discover what consequences derive in everyday life, from such a strong spiritual experience.

"I pray to God," the Pope went on, "that, for all participants, the coming World Youth Day may be a stimulus to unitedly profess the faith at the start of the third millennium. In this city and in this Church of Rome ... the youth of world the will meet to fix their eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, and to give Him the response of their Christian commitment."
The Pope concluded: "I am certain that when they leave to re-embark on their life journeys, they will be workers of the new evangelization, builders of a civilization of love. In fact, their principal task is to 'ferry' the Gospel into the first century of the new millennium, pervading everyday life with the unchangeable values contained in this eternal and unchangeable 'Book of Life'."

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