HOLY FATHER'S MESSAGE TO MEETING OF GERMAN CATHOLICS

VATICAN CITY, JUN 2, 2000 (VIS) - Made public today was a Message from Pope John Paul to Archbishop Ludwig Averkamp of Hamburg, Germany, on the occasion of the 94th Annual Congress of German Catholics, which is taking place in Hamburg. The Message, written in German, and dated May 23, is a call to unity and a defense of life, marriage and the family, several of the topics on the congress' agenda.

The Pope recalls that the theme of the meeting is "Time is Being." He says that "the time given to us is a gift, a gift from God. It is up to us what use we make of our time. Give your time to each other, priests to the community, the community to priests, men and women to each other, children to their parents, young people to older people, the healthy to the ill, each one to everyone else. Those who dedicate time to others give a gift of life. Our relationship with time has much to do with believing. God has time. He dedicated His time to mankind."

"There are diverse themes to which your meeting is dedicated. The protection of human life from natural conception to natural death; the defense of the inalienable value of matrimony and the family which corresponds to the plan of creation; safeguarding the Lord's Day in a society dominated by economic interests; hospitality towards strangers in your country; the insertion of Christian formation into your unified country; these are just a few of the themes which you must bring to fulfillment. Of all of these, I ask you to take one particularly to heart; may unity be the supreme good for you. ... Bishops, priests, religious and laity, we are all Church: Only united are we strong. Jesus Christ founded one Church, whose foundation is the Apostles."

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