JUBILEE OF GOVERNMENT LEADERS, POLITICIANS STARTS IN VATICAN

VATICAN CITY, NOV 4, 2000 (VIS) - The Jubilee of Government Leaders and Politicians began today with a series of meetings in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, in which political leaders and heads of state and government from more than 100 countries participated. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Jubilee committee, gave a welcome speech in the morning session, and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state, spoke at the close of that meeting. Pope John Paul II addressed the assembly in its closing session.

The Pope told those present that their mission as statesmen and politicians "can well be deemed a true and genuine vocation to politics, which in practice means the governance of nations, the formulation of laws and the administration of public affairs at every level."

Stressing that "politics is the use of legitimate authority in order to attain the common good of society," the Pope went on to say that "Christians who engage in politics ' and who wish to do so as Christians ' must act selflessly, not seeking their own advantage, or that of their group or party, but the good of one and all, and consequently, in the first place, that of the less fortunate members of society." Among these, he stated, are "those who are imprisoned," and he renewed his call of July 9, the Jubilee of Prisoners, to "leaders of countries to make 'a gesture of clemency towards all those in prison' which would be 'a clear sign of sensitivity to their condition'.

"Justice must indeed be the fundamental concern of political leaders: a justice which is not content to apportion to each his own, but one which aims at creating conditions of equal opportunity among citizens, and therefore favoring those who ... risk being left behind or relegated to the lowest places in society. This is the scandal of the affluent society of today's world, in which the rich grow ever richer, since wealth produces wealth, and the poor grow ever poorer, since poverty tends to create additional poverty."

"I think," said John Paul II, "with profound distress of those areas of the world afflicted by endless wars and hostilities, by endemic hunger and by terrible diseases. ... Truly there needs to be a greater spirit of solidarity in the world. ... Christians who feel themselves called by God to political life have the duty ' quite difficult yet very necessary ' to conform the laws of the 'unbridled' market to the laws of justice and solidarity".

"I would like to speak in a particular way to those of you who have the very delicate task of formulating and approving laws. ... positive law cannot contradict the natural law. This means that laws ... must always respect and promote human persons. ... Hence a law which does not respect the right to life ' from conception to natural death ' of every human being, whatever his or her condition ' healthy or ill, still in the embryonic stage, elderly or close to death ' is not a law in harmony with the divine plan. Consequently, Christian legislators may neither contribute to the formulation of such a law nor approve it in parliamentary assembly, although, where such a law already exists, it is licit for them to propose amendments which would diminish its adverse effects."

"With an act of wholehearted and steadfast faith, renew your fidelity to Jesus Christ," Pope John Paul concluded, "and make his Gospel the guide of your thought and of your life."

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