POPE THANKS RETREAT MASTER, "A WITNESS TO THE CROSS"

VATICAN CITY, MAR 18, 2000 (VIS) - This morning, at the conclusion of the retreat for the Roman Curia, Pope John Paul spoke briefly to those gathered in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel, calling this period "days of grace and prayer, ... of intense and prolonged listening to the Spirit, ... of a strong community experience."

He had special thanks for the retreat master, Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, whose "simplicity and inspiration ... led us to deepen our vocation as witnesses to Gospel hope at the start of the third millennium. As a witness himself to the Cross in his long years of imprisonment in Vietnam, he frequently told us facts and episodes of his much-suffered imprisonment, strengthening us in the consoling certainty that when everything falls apart around us and perhaps even within us, Christ is our unfailing support. We are grateful to Archbishop Van Thuan - in prison he was only Mr. Van Thuan - for his witness."

John Paul II concluded by asking those present "to continue to accompany me with prayer, especially during the pilgrimage to the Holy Land which, God willing, I will have the joy of making next week."

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