BARNABITES WELCOMED BY POPE DURING GENERAL CHAPTER

VATICAN CITY, JUL 8, 2000 (VIS) - This morning in the Hall of Popes, the Holy Father met with 50 participants in the general chapter of the Regular Order of St. Paul, also known as the Barnabites, who are meeting on the theme "Looking to the Future." The order was founded in the 16th century by St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria and housed in the monastery of St. Barnabas in Milan from which they received the name of Barnabites.

The Pope urged them to "reaffirm with joy your fidelity to the spiritual patrimony of your founder" who "lived a demanding spirituality based on 'the madness of the Cross'. ... At a time of general lassitude, St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria revived the faith, promoting an intense life of interior renewal centered on the Crucifix and the worship of the Eucharist, the heart of the life of the Church."

John Paul II recalled that the Barnabites chose St. Paul as their teacher and "assumed the commitment of reforming customs, dedicating themselves with special care to the education of young people and schools and oratories." Still today, he went on, "you feel called to witness to the Gospel of charity to your contemporaries. Love for Jesus, 'the living Crucified', and the desire to embrace all men in charity, without distinction, push you to seek .... new avenues to be living presences in the Church."

"Looking at the vast horizons of the new evangelization," he concluded, "the necessity to proclaim and witness the Gospel message to everyone, without distinction, takes on even greater urgency. ... Indeed, how many people are waiting to know Jesus and His Gospel! How many situations of injustice, of moral and material uneasiness are present in so many parts of the earth!"

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SPECIAL ENVOY NAMED TO UKRAINIAN CELEBRATIONS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 8, 2000 (VIS) - Made public today was a Letter by Pope John Paul, written in Latin and dated June 10, in which he names Cardinal Vinko Puljic, archbishop of Vrhbosna Sarajevo, as his special envoy to the celebrations of the Ukrainian International Pilgrimage to the Marian shrine of Zarvanycia, Ukraine, scheduled to take place July 22-23.

The names of those who will accompany Cardinal Puljic were also published: Fathers Hlib Lonchyna, professor of theology at the Theological Academy of Lviv, and Vasil Dubets, professor of liturgy at the diocesan seminary of Ternopil.

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HOLY FATHER WELCOMES ITALIAN AND SPANISH PILGRIMS TO ROME

VATICAN CITY, JUL 8, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father this morning in the Clementine Hall received in audience various groups of pilgrims from Italy and Spain, in Rome to celebrate the Jubilee Year 2000. He reminded them that "during the Great Jubilee, a time of grace and mercy, each one is called to respond to God's voice through a serious examination of conscience, efforts for purification and penance, and more intense prayer."

To a group of consecrated, he said: "In the wake of Christ, Obedient Servant, be ever ready to receive with joy God's plan for you, witnessing the fact that Love is capable of filling the heart of the human person. Your consecration expresses the intimate nature of the Christian vocation and the longing of the entire Church-Spouse for union with the One Spouse."

To the lay faithful, John Paul II said: "May your dignity as children of God be mirrored in your every activity, your every concrete commitment. In what you do, in work, in your dedication to the family, in educating your children, in social and political service, in the spheres of culture and information, may your continual exercise in faith, hope and charity, shine forth."

Greeting pilgrims from Santiago de Compostela, Spain, the Pope addressed them in their language and recalled that, as they had recently celebrated a Jubilee, "you know well the riches that God sends forth in a Holy Year. I hope for you that you welcome with joy your going through the Holy Door in this Great Jubilee, so that your hearts and your communities open themselves to the new life that is Christ and that, with Him, the source of life and hope, the Church of Santiago strengthens its faith, its fidelity and its apostolic vigor in the face of the challenges of the third millennium."

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REAFFIRM CHARISMS OF ECUMENISM, RENEWAL OF CHRISTIAN LIFE

VATICAN CITY, JUL 8, 2000 (VIS) - The Pope received in audience this morning in the Consistory Hall members of the general chapter of the Basilian Order, whose patron and "patriarch" is St. Basil the Great (d.329). The Pope underscored how, for many members of the community, "just ten years have passed since their freedom from oppressive regimes, which were a great deterrent to the life of the Church."

Recalling that the Basilians work mainly among Eastern rite Catholics, the Holy Father pointed to one of the primary scopes of the Basilian order, "the renewal of the Christian life of your people, an end to which St. Josaphat worked so diligently. ... We are approaching the 400th anniversary of his entrance into the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Vilnius. The start of a new springtime of monastic life in the Greek-Catholic Church goes back to that very time." St. Josaphat "contributed efficaciously to the rebirth not only of monasticism but also of Christian life in those lands. An analogous situation is repeated today in those places where, for many decades, the Church was suppressed."
Turning to the charism of the Order of St. Basil the Great, John Paul II said that "it rests on several essential points: community life, a clear manifestation of the evangelical life, service to the unity of the Church of Christ as expressed in study, example and, above all, in personal prayer and liturgy, the multiform apostolate for the people of God through spiritual formation, and pastoral, catechetical, missionary, scholastic and editorial activities." He pointed out that St. Basil knew how to balance "tireless preaching with spaces for solitude and ample time for prayer." He was, "in the fullest sense of the term, a monk."

The Pope urged the Basilians to remain dedicated to their service to ecumenism, to St. Basil's "call to the precept of love for God and for one's brothers," and to making liturgy their "continual reference point. Faithfully adhering to the legacy of the past, which knows how to open itself to a healthy creativity according to the great spirit of liturgical prayer, will be a guarantee of the perseverance of your Oriental religious identity."

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JUBILEE MASS IN ROME PRISON: POPE REPEATS CALL FOR CLEMENCY

VATICAN CITY, JUL 9, 2000 (VIS) - Wearing vestments made by Regina Coeli prison inmates and saying Mass on a platform they made in their workshop, the Holy Father this morning celebrated the Jubilee in Prisons in the centuries-old Roman building which serves as a jail for men. He reiterated the "request to authorities for a sign of clemency towards all prisoners" during the Jubilee Year which he made in his June 30th Message for this particular Jubilee Day.

Several score of prisoners attended the Mass, while the rest watched from either their cells overlooking the rotunda area where Mass was said or followed the celebration on screens placed throughout the prison. Prisoners served as altar boys and also formed the choir. A delegation of women from the city's female prison attended the papal Mass. Also present were the warden, prison guards, chaplains and civil authorities.

Pope John Paul, whose visit lasted two hours, is the third pontiff to visit Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven) prison: Pope John XXIII came on December 26, 1958, and Paul VI visited in 1964.

"I come to you as a witness of God's love," the Pope told the prisoners in his homily. "I come to tell you that God loves you and wishes you to walk on a path of rehabilitation and pardon, of truth and justice. I wish that I could personally hear the individual story of each of you. Since I cannot do so, your chaplains can; they are near you in the name of Christ."

He remarked that "at the center of this Jubilee is Christ the prisoner, but at the same time, Christ the lawmaker. It is He Who makes the Law, Who proclaims it, Who consolidates it. In any case, he does not do so with arrogance, but rather with meekness. ... He strongly proclaims justice, but heals wounds with the balm of mercy."

The Holy Father stated that "it is a duty to receive the message of the Word of God in its integral meaning. The 'prison' from which the Lord comes to free us is, in the first place, that in which the spirit is chained. The spirit's prison is sin. ... God takes to heart the integral liberation of man, a liberation which not only regards physical and external conditions, but is above all that of the heart."

He said that "our sin upset God's plans, and not only human life, but creation itself feels it. This cosmic dimension of the effects of sin can be easily seen in ecological disasters. Not any less worrisome are the damages caused by sin in the human psyche. ... Sin is devastating. It removes peace of heart and produces a chain of suffering in human relations. I imagine how many times, going over your personal stories, or listening to those of your cell mates, you have noted this truth!"

John Paul II ended his homily with remarks on the prisoners' sentences: "Sentences, in fact, cannot be a merely retributional in nature or a kind of social retaliation or institutional vendetta. Sentences, and prison, make sense if, while the needs of justice are affirmed and crime is discouraged, they serve to renew man, offering those who have erred a chance to reflect and change life, to be reinstated fully into society."

After Mass, the Pope received gifts from the inmates at Regina Coeli prison and then made a brief speech, following those by civil officials.

He told the prisoners that he extended his greetings to their families as well. "I know well," he said, "that each of you lives in looking forward to the day when, once your sentence is completed, you will again be free and return to your families.

"Aware of this, in the Message I sent the world for this Jubilee day, in the wake of my predecessors and in the spirit of the Holy Year, I asked for a sign of clemency for you, by means of a reduction of sentence, I asked for this deeply aware that such a choice is a sign of sensitivity towards your condition, a sign capable of encouraging the commitment to repentance and of inviting personal reformation."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 8, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

- Cardinal John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung, bishop of Hong Kong, as his special envoy to the National Missionary Congress of the Philippines, which will take place from September 27 to October 1 in Cebu.

- Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig, apostolic nuncio in Burundi, as apostolic nuncio in Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Jamaica, the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Santa Lucia, and apostolic delegate in the Antilles.

- Msgr. Antonio Mennini, nunciature counselor, as apostolic nuncio in Bulgaria, elevating him to the dignity of archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in Rome, Italy in 1947 and ordained a priest in 1974.

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, JUL 8, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father received in separate audiences today:

- His Royal Highness, Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, with his wife and entourage.
- Felipe H. Paolillo, ambassador of Uruguay, on a farewell visit.
- Mohammad Hadi Abdekhoda'i, ambassador of Iran, on a farewell visit.
- Archbishop Francesco Monterisi, secretary of the Congregation for Bishops.

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POPE ANNOUNCES "A PERIOD OF REST" IN ITALIAN MOUNTAINS

VATICAN CITY, JUL 9, 2000 (VIS) - Pope John Paul, after praying the noon angelus today with tens of thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, told them that "tomorrow, God willing, I will go for a period of rest to the mountains of Valle d'Aosta."

"I would like to greet all those," he added, "who are already on vacation in various places and those who are still in the city. In a special way my thoughts turn to the young people who are taking their end-of-the-year exams. I would also like to greet all who cannot go on vacation. I am thinking about those who are sick, older persons, people who are alone and all who for various reasons must stay at home. May solidarity be shown to them."

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GAY PRIDE MARCH "AN OFFENSE TO CHRISTIAN VALUES"

VATICAN CITY, JUL 9, 2000 (VIS) - Speaking from his study window before today's angelus, Pope John Paul said he "had to mention the well-known demonstrations which took place in Rome in recent days," referring to the week-long gay pride meetings and the march through Rome on Saturday. "In the name of the Church of Rome, I can only express bitterness for the affront to the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and for the offense to the Christian values of a city so dear to the hearts of Catholics throughout the world."

"The Church," he continued, "cannot silence the truth, because she would fail in her fidelity to God the Creator and would not help in discerning what is good from what is evil.

"I would like, in this regard, just to read what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says. After pointing out that homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law, it states: 'The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition'."

In other remarks which preceded the angelus prayer today, the Holy Father spoke of his "joy at meeting the inmates of Regina Coeli prison, during their jubilee. It was a touching moment of prayer and humanity. I sought to understand, reading their eyes, the sufferings, anxieties and hopes of each one. In them I knew I was meeting Christ who identified with them in the Gospel when he said 'I was in prison and you came to find me'."

The Pope referred to his Message for the Jubilee in Prisons when he "asked that, precisely for the Holy Year, a sign of clemency be offered to prisoners. Above all I asked the legislators of the entire world to re-think the prison system, as well as the penal system, aiming to make them more respectful of human dignity, in line with a redeeming justice for the guilty and not only reparation for the disorder caused by the crime. In fact, all those who have made mistakes must be helped to undertake a path of moral redemption and personal and community growth, with a view to a valid reinsertion into society."

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JOHN PAUL II DEPARTS FOR VACATION IN VALLE D'AOSTA

VATICAN CITY, JUL 10, 2000 (VIS) - Pope John Paul II left this morning at 10:15 from Rome's Ciampino Airport for the hour-long flight to Saint-Christophe where he then travelled by car to Les Combes, in Italy's northern Valle d'Aosta region. The Pope has spent previous vacation periods at Les Combes.

Only one public activity is scheduled for the 13-day rest period: On Sunday, July 16, he will recite the angelus from his vacation retreat.

The Holy Father will leave Valle d'Aosta in late afternoon on Saturday, July 22. He is set to arrive at Ciampino Airport at 7:30 p.m. and go directly to the summer papal residence at Castelgandolfo.

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