PAPAL, HOLY SEE HIGHLIGHTS FOR 1999: AUGUST - DECEMBER

VATICAN CITY, JAN 28, 2000 (VIS) - Following are highlights of the activities of Pope John Paul II and the Holy See for the months of August through December 1999. Highlights of the first seven months were presented by VIS on July 30, 1999.


AUGUST

- Friday, 6: Publication of Holy Father's Message for the Eighth World Day of the Sick to be held in Rome on February 11, 2000.
- Saturday and Sunday, 7, 8: Cardinal Angelo Sodano represents Pope John Paul at the closing celebrations of the European Youth Meeting, being held in Santiago de Compostela, Spain from August 4-8.

SEPTEMBER

- Saturday, 4: One-day apostolic trip to Salerno, Italy: Pope John Paul's 136th such trip within Italy.
- Sunday, 5: Audience at Castelgandolfo with Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian National Authority.
- Wednesday, 8: Annual papal Message to director of UNESCO for today's World Day for Literacy.
- Monday, 13: Audiences to Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, apostolic administrator of Dili, East Timor, and Prime Minister Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili of Lesotho.
- Tuesday, 14: Bishop Ximenes Belo of East Timor holds press briefing in the Vatican.
- Wednesday, 15: A meeting is held at Castelgandolfo between the Holy Father and several German bishops on matters relative to Catholic family consulting centers in Germany which provide counselling services and certificates to pregnant women in difficulty.
- Thursday, 16: Communique issued on German Catholic consulting centers. Pope receives President Guido de Marco of the Republic of Malta.
- Friday, 17: New "Enchiridion Indulgentiarum" is presented.
- Saturday, 18: Pope receives King Abdullah Bin Hussein of Jordan.
- Sunday, 19: One-day apostolic trip to Slovenia: the Pope's 88th foreign pastoral trip.
- Thursday, 30: Audience for Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias, president of Venezuela. Holy Father blesses newly restored facade of St. Peter's Basilica in an early evening ceremony, accompanied by fireworks, in St. Peter's Square.

OCTOBER

- Friday, 1: A concelebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica opens the Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops. During the Mass, Pope John Paul proclaims St. Edith Stein (Benedicta of the Cross), St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Catherine of Siena as co-patronesses of Europe.
- Saturday, 2: Archbishop Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," visits Kosovo.
- Sunday, 3: Pope beatifies six Servants of God.
- Friday, 8: Presentation of book by Fr. Pierre Blet, S.J., "Pius XII and the Second World War in the Vatican Archives."
- Saturday, 9: Audience with Hubert Vedrine, foreign minister of France.
- Thursday, 14: Declaration by Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls on the building of a mosque in Nazareth near the basilica of the Annunciation.
- Friday, 15: Holy Father's annual Message for World Food Day, on the theme "Young People Against Hunger."
- Saturday, 16: John Paul II marks the 21st anniversary of his election as Pope. His pontificate is the 10th longest in history (St. Peter's is considered the longest).
- Tuesday, 19: Official visit by Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Also, an announcement that a joint team of Catholic and Jewish scholars will be formed to review published volumes of Church archival material covering the World War II period.
- Friday, 22: Final message of European Synod of Bishops.
- Saturday, 23: Closing Mass for Second Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops.
- Sunday, 24: Celebration of World Mission Day.
- Monday, 25: Audiences to Igor Sergheevich Ivanov, foreign affairs minister of the Russian Federation and Joao Soares, mayor of Lisbon, Portugal. Opening of Inter-Religious Assembly in the Vatican.
- Tuesday, 26: Publication of "The Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to the Elderly." Publication of letter from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and the Central Jubilee Committee to cloistered orders of religious.
- Thursday, 28: Pope receives Franjo Tudjman, president of Croatia, and Croatia's foreign affairs minister, Mate Granic.
- Friday, 29: Pope grants audience to President Rudolf Schuster of Slovakia, and Slovakia's foreign affairs minister, Eduard Kukan. Holy Father and world's religious leaders gather in St. Peter's Square at conclusion of Inter-religious assembly in the Vatican.
- Sunday, 31: Joint Declaration on the Doctrine Justification signed in Augsburg, Germany by Catholic Church and World Lutheran Federation.

NOVEMBER

- Thursday, 4: Cardinal Cassidy attends enthronement of new Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin II.
- Friday, 5: Pope leaves for five-day trip to India and Republic of Georgia on his 89th foreign pastoral visit. Also, the Latin, Greek-Orthodox and Armenian patriarchs of Jerusalem announce that Holy Land shrines will be closed November 22 and 23 to express disapproval of the building of a mosque near the basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.
- Saturday, 6: John Paul II signs Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Ecclesia in Asia" in New Delhi.
- Tuesday, 9: Courtesy visit paid to President Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia.
- Saturday, 13: Audience to King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden.
- Monday, 15: Visit by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of the Republic of Algeria.
- Friday, 19: Pope receives Fernando Henrique Cardoso, president of Brazil.
- Sunday, 21: Holy Father canonizes 12 Blesseds.
- Monday, 22: Audiences to Carlos Saul Menem, president of Argentina, and to Sheikh Hamad Bin Essa Al-Khalifa, emir of Bahrain.
- Tuesday, 23: Audiences to Martti Ahtisaari, president of Finland, and Jordan Sokolov, president of the Bulgarian parliament.
- Wednesday, 24: Announcement that Pope John Paul sent $100,000 to aid flood victims in Vietnam.
- Saturday, 27: Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, secretary for Relations with States, departs for Cuba to attend symposium on Apostolic Exhortation "Ecclesia in America."
- Monday, 29: Publication of Pope's Message for 37th World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

DECEMBER

- Monday, 6: Publication of Pope's Message for 86th World Day of Migrants and Refugees.
- Friday, 10: Publication of papal Message to Catholics in China for the Jubilee Year.
- Saturday, 11: John Paul II inaugurates completely restored Sistine Chapel. Papal telegram for death of Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.
- Monday, 13: Publication of Holy Father's Message for the January 1, 2000 World Day of Peace, entitled "Peace on earth to those whom God loves!" Audiences to president of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki and to His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians.
- Friday, 17: Pope inaugurates new lighting (a total of 46,650 kilowatts) for the facade, atrium, dome, skylights, tambour and small domes of St. Peter's Basilica. Audience to Alwi Shihab, foreign minister of Indonesia.
- Saturday, 18: Audience to Vaclav Havel, president of the Czech Republic. - Monday, 20: Promulgation of decrees by Congregation for the Causes of Saints: includes Popes Pius IX and John XXIII among those who will be beatified.
- Friday, 24: Pope John Paul II opens Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica, thus commencing the Jubilee Year 2000, following which he presides at the celebration of Christmas Midnight Mass.
- Saturday, 25: Christmas Day "Urbi et Orbi" Message and Blessing. Pope opens the Holy Door at the patriarchal basilica of St. John Lateran.
- Friday, 31: Vespers and traditional end-of-the-year "Te deum" of thanksgiving in St. Peter's Basilica. At midnight Pope appears at his window and wishes the crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square a Happy New Year, new millennium and Jubilee year. He imparts his "Urbi et Orbi" blessing.

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NEW AREA FOR CONFESSIONS INAUGURATED IN THE VATICAN

VATICAN CITY, JAN 28, 2000 (VIS) - Today at 6 p.m., Cardinal Virgilio Noe, archpriest of the Vatican Basilica, will inaugurate a new space exclusively dedicated to confessions, as penance is a central part of the Jubilee Year. Two rows of confessionals have been installed inside the Charlemagne Wing, a monumental corridor linking the colonnade to the atrium of St. Peter's.

In the new space, the Sacrament of Penance will be administered in various languages, above all by priests of the Roman Curia who have requested to work alongside the penitentiaries of St. Peter's who regularly administer the sacrament at confessionals within the Basilica.

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THE FULLNESS OF SALVATION IS FOUND IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

VATICAN CITY, JAN 28, 2000 (VIS) - The participants in the plenary session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were welcomed this morning by the Holy Father, who dedicated his talk to one of the two themes of the plenary, "the oneness and saving universality of Christ and of the Church," affirming that the fullness of salvation is found in the Catholic Church.

The Pope stated that "the reaffirmation of the Magisterium's doctrine in this regard is proposed ... in order to refute errors and grave ambiguities which have taken shape and are being spread in diverse milieux."

"In recent years, in fact," he affirmed, "in certain theological and ecclesial milieux a mentality has emerged which tends to relativize the revelation of Christ as the one and universal mediation for salvation, as well as to redimension the Church's need for Christ as a universal sacrament of salvation. To remedy this relativistic mentality the definitive and complete nature of the revelation of Christ must be reiterated."

"The thesis concerning the limited nature of the revelation of Christ, which finds its complement in other religions, is therefore contrary to the Church's faith. The basic reason for this assertion claims to be based on the fact that the truth about God cannot be received and shown in its universality and fullness by any one historical religion, therefore, not even by Christianity, much less by Jesus Christ. This position, however, contradicts the affirmation of faith according to which Jesus Christ represents the full and complete revelation of the saving mystery of God."

John Paul II continued: "Linked to the oneness of the saving mediation of Christ is the oneness of the Church He founded. In fact the Lord Jesus constituted His Church as a saving reality: as His Body, through which He Himself works in the history of salvation. As there is only one Christ, there is only one Body: 'one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church'."

"It is therefore erroneous to consider the Church as one road to salvation next to those built by other religions." What must be excluded is "a religious relativism which leads people to hold that one religion equals another."

He observed that Vatican Council II said that non-Christians could attain eternal life "'moved by grace' if 'they seek God with a sincere heart'. ... Their situation, however, is lacking, if compared to that of those who, in the Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation."

Pope John Paul closed his talk by re-confirming "the Catholic Church's commitment to 'the re-establishment of unity'. ... Our ardent desire to one day reach full communion with other Churches and ecclesial communities must not however obscure the truth that the Church of Christ is not a utopia that must be put back together from existing fragments, with our human strength. The Decree 'Unitatis redintegratio' explicitly spoke of the unity 'which we believe subsists, without the possibility of being lost, in the Catholic Church and which we hope will grow every day to the end of time'."

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