CONVERSION IS CHANGE FROM WORLDLY TO DIVINE MENTALITY

VATICAN CITY, MAY 4, 2000 (VIS) - At midday today in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope received 1,200 managers and workers of AGIP service stations, who have come to Rome for the Great Jubilee. AGIP is a division of Italy's national hydrocarbon agency.

John Paul II explained the meaning of a Jubilee pilgrimage: "It expresses and favors the road to conversion (which is) the true aim of the Jubilee Year. To convert means to undergo a mental change, from that 'of the world' to that of God, that Christ revealed and communicated to us."

The Pope expressed the desire that their professional activity "with the exertions it inevitably involves, may harmonize with spiritual and family life, in order to correspond to the Creator's plan."

"Putting the Jubilee spirit into effect," he concluded, "means giving fundamental values their correct importance, values that do not take anything away from working life, but place it in its proper dimension and give it authentic meaning."

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