DAY OF PARDON, EVOCATIVE AND SOLEMN PENITENTIAL ACT

VATICAN CITY, MAR 12, 2000 (VIS) - Addressing the tens of thousands of faithful who had gathered in St. Peter's Square to recite the angelus with him, John Paul II spoke of the just-concluded Mass in the Vatican basilica for the Day of Pardon. He called it an "evocative and solemn penitential act" in which, "in the name of all Christian people, bishops and ecclesial communities from throughout the world knelt before God to beg His pardon."

He pointed out that "the Holy Year is a time of purification: the Church is holy because Christ is her head and Spouse. ... However, the sons and daughters of the Church know the experience of sin, whose shadows cover them, obscuring their beauty."

The Pope affirmed that the Day of Pardon "is not a judgment on the subjective responsibilities of our brothers and sisters who preceded us: this is up to God alone. ... Today's act is a sincere recognition of the sins committed by the children of the Church in the past, both distant and recent, and a humble request of pardon from God."

"While we ask for pardon, we also pardon. ... May pardon be the fruit of this Jubilee day for all believers, pardon both given and received! And from pardon blooms reconciliation. ... Pardoned and willing to pardon, Christians enter the third millennium as more credible witnesses of hope."

Pope John Paul concluded his meditations: "Being witnesses of hope! This is also the theme of the spiritual exercises which I shall start this evening with my collaborators in the Roman Curia."

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