COME TO ROME IN AUGUST, POPE INVITES WORLD'S YOUTHS

VATICAN CITY, APR 16, 2000 (VIS) - Before reciting the angelus today, Pope John Paul invited the world's young people to come to Rome in August for the 15th World Youth Day, and he wished them a Happy Easter in Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Polish.

He had special words of thanks for "the young people from Rome and Italy, for the commitment and availability with which you are preparing to receive your peers."

The Pope concluded his multi-lingual Palm Sunday greetings by thanking Italy's Puglia region for the dozens of olive trees and hundreds of olive branches which they offered for today's celebration and which adorned St. Peter's Square and were distributed to the faithful present.

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