THE WORLD NEEDS JUSTICE AND PEACE

VATICAN CITY, NOV 18, 2000 (VIS) - The Pope today received participants in a pilgrimage from Poland who have come to Rome to celebrate the Jubilee of the police and armed forces. He told them that the message of their Jubilee, 'With Christ in defense of justice and peace,' was an eloquent sign.

"Even today," he affirmed, "at the end of the second millennium, the world has need of justice and peace. It is vital that these words be given concrete significance and, at times, that their true meaning be restored. I would like to recall, furthermore, the Polish soldiers who carry out their mission in Bosnia, in Kosovo, in Lebanon and on the Golan Heights."

John Paul II urged those present "to carry with joy, to men and to nations, the message of peace and of love. A most eloquent proof of this attitude is the gift from Caritas to the military ordinary of an ambulance for a hospital in Kosovo. You offered this as a gift to the altar for the occasion of the Great Jubilee. I thank you for this fine gesture that arose from the hearts of the soldiers."

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