FELLOW POLES JOIN POPE JOHN PAUL IN EVENING PRAYER SERVICE

VATICAN CITY, JULY 7, 2000 (VIS) - Calling it a "touching encounter," Pope John Paul spent two hours in St. Peter's Square last evening with 30,000 of his fellow Poles for an evening prayer service. He spoke to and prayed with them and listened to testimonials and musical performances, many executed by men and women wearing colorful native costumes.

In his talk, he spoke of the "Polish millennium - the millennium of the baptism of our nation," underscoring the Christian history of Poland and naming many of the country's great events and persons, including Church leaders, kings, queens, military leaders and saints. "Let us accept their witness, not to glorify ourselves, but to first render glory to the Lord and then to accept, with awareness, this legacy and pass it on to future generations."

The Holy Father told the Polish faithful that their pilgrimage to Rome was "to renew and enrich, with the faith of the Apostles, ... your own faith. ... Today the world, and even our fatherland, has great need of men and women of mature faith, who courageously confess Christ in every place and every situation. There is need for authentic heralds of the Gospel and messengers of truth. Of people who believe and who love and transform this love of God into authentic service to mankind. The greatest treasure which we can transmit to the younger generations at the threshold of the third millennium is our faith. Blessed is the nation which walks in the light of the Gospel, which lives the truth of God and which attains the knowledge of the Cross."

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