POPE EXCHANGES JUBILEE CHRISTMAS GREETINGS WITH CURIA

VATICAN CITY, DEC 21, 200 (VIS) - Pope John Paul received the cardinals of the Roman Curia today, along with other collaborators, for the traditional exchange of Christmas wishes, to thank them for their collaboration during the Holy Year and to relive a number of the highlights of the about-to-conclude Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

He told the Curia that "the Holy Door is about to close but Christ Whom it represents is 'the same yesterday, today and always'. He is the 'door'!" The Pope added that the "very great number of pilgrims" who passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica offered "ever new witnesses of faith and devotion. ... St. Peter's Square this year was more than ever a 'microcosm' in which mankind's various situations came close together," including "the young and the old, artists and athletes, handicapped and families, politicians and journalists, bishops, priests and consecrated people."

The Holy Father had special words for and fond memories of World Youth Day and the Jubilee of Young People, "not only for the dimensions which marked it but above all for the commitment that 'the Pope's boys and girls - as they are called - knew how to show."

John Paul II then expressed his "grateful appreciation" to all who helped make the Jubilee Year a success: the offices of the Holy See, the Governorate, the cardinal archpriest of the Vatican Basilica, the Secretariat of State, the Prefecture of the Papal Household, the Office of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, L'Osservatore Romano, the Press Office, Vatican Radio and Vatican Television Center, the confessors in the various basilicas, the Vicariate of Rome and the many volunteers, young and old.

The first highlight of the Holy Year that the Pope mentioned was the February 22 Jubilee of the Roman Curia. "What we are," he said, "we are in fact because of the ministry that Christ entrusted to Peter: 'Feed my lambs, tend my sheep'." He said that the "Jubilee was for me a moment in which I felt ever more strongly the presence of Christ. The work was ... more weighty than usual but with the help of God all went well." He stressed that "the Roman Curia must be a place in which one breathes holiness. A place in which competition and careerism must be profoundly extraneous, in which only love for Christ should reign."

Other moments of the Jubilee Year 2000 which the Pope chose to highlight included "the commemoration of Abraham 'our father in the faith' in the Paul VI Hall"; his "unforgettable" pilgrimages to Mount Sinai and the Holy Land and his meetings with Christians, Jews and Muslims and the ecumenical and inter-religious prayer services and events which marked the Holy Year throughout.

He said he hoped that the Holy Land would finally find peace: "Today we wish to speak of our closeness to all of those who are suffering in this protracted conflict, and we ask God to placate the violence of both feelings and arms, and to orient people to adequate solutions for a just and lasting peace."

"The Great Jubilee," Pope John Paul observed, "was also a year of a greater awareness of the urgency of charity, especially in the dimension of assistance that should be given to the poorest countries. ... The Church's commitment for the reduction of the international debt of the poor countries had great meaning in this sense." He thanked governments who had moved in this direction, and also thanked "the leaders of nations who received my repeated appeals to make 'a sign of clemency towards prisoners'."

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