JUBILEE IS A TIME FOR CONVERSION AND JOY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 18, 2000 (VIS) - This morning in St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope received various groups of pilgrims from Italian dioceses and parishes. In his address, he recalled that the Jubilee is "a time for conversion and joy that refreshes believers on their journey to interior renewal so that, in their hearts and their communities, a new mentality is asserted, one capable of appraising the events of the world in the light of the Gospel."

Speaking to faithful from the diocese of Carpi, the Holy Father said: "Given a more pronounced individualism, economic well-being that is an end unto itself and the religious indifference that sometimes risks insinuating itself in people's hearts, may you be spurred on to live with greater coherence what you are: children of God, called to be heirs to the Kingdom."

John Paul II also had words for a group from the Domenico Tardini Community Association, where young people are formed under the guidance of both Cardinal Achille Silvestrini, prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches and Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See. "Generations of young people grew up, and from the example of the teaching of the great cardinal (Tardini) and from the experience of life, the association was born with the aim of developing in its members the personal encounter with Christ, as well as respect for the dignity of all human beings, commitment to liberty and service through culture."

Finally, he greeted a number of Hungarian faithful from the parishes of St. Gerard and St. Therese of Lisieux in Budapest.

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