MULTI-LINGUAL GREETINGS TO JUBILEE PILGRIMS IN ROME

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 2000 (VIS) - Following today's general audience catechesis in Italian, the Pope then read summaries in English, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese, and greeted the pilgrims in St. Peter's Square in those languages as well as in Croatian, Slovakian, Czech and Lithuanian.

He welcomed French-speaking pilgrims from the diocese of Creteil, France, readers of Le Pelerin Magazine, a group of faithful from Vietnam and an ecumenical group from Greece. "May your Jubilee pilgrimage rekindle your faith and make you witnesses of the Risen Christ and artisans of peace among your brothers!"

The Holy Father then greeted pilgrims from the archdiocese of Saint Andrew's and Edinburgh in Scotland and from the diocese of Leeds in England. He had special words for "the pilgrims from the archdiocese of Washington led by Cardinal James Hickey to whom I offer my cordial best wishes for his 80th birthday, which he is celebrating today."

"I greet with affection," the Pope went on, "Spanish-speaking pilgrims, especially the Venezuelan bishops, with the superiors and students of the new college which they are going to inaugurate in Rome for the formation of priests."

Speaking Czech, John Paul II recalled that "next Saturday,the World Encounter of Families starts here in Rome. Even Jesus Christ entered into the history of mankind by means of the Holy Family of Nazareth. He wishes to be with us in each family. Make room also for Him."

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HOLY FATHER EXHORTS END TO VIOLENCE IN MIDDLE EAST

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 2000 (VIS) - During today's weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square for 38,000 faithful, Pope John Paul referred to the situation in the Middle East and exhorted an end to the violence there:

"With great anguish, we are following the grievous tensions in the Middle East, shaken once again by events that have caused numerous victims and that have not even spared the holy sites.

"Faced by this dramatic situation, I cannot but call on everyone to put an immediate end to this spiral of violence. At the same time, I invite all believers to pray to God that the people and leaders of that region may return to the path of dialogue and rediscover the joy of feeling themselves to be children of God, their common Father."

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GENERAL AUDIENCE: THE EUCHARIST, SACRIFICE OF PRAISE

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 2000 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square in the presence of 38,000 pilgrims, the Holy Father spoke on: "The Eucharist, 'sacrificium laudis'."

"The Eucharist," he said, "is the prefect 'sacrifice of praise,' the highest glorification that rises from earth to heaven, 'the source and summit of the Christian life (in which the children of God) offer the divine victim to God and themselves along with it'."

John Paul II recalled that in the Eucharist, "above all, the sacrifice of Christ is made present. Jesus is truly present under the species of bread and wine. ... 'The Eucharist is, above all, a sacrifice: a sacrifice of redemption and, at the same time, of the new covenant, as we believe and as is also clearly professed by the Oriental Churches'."

"The Eucharist," he continued, "is a sacrifice of praise. It is essentially oriented towards full communion between God and man." It is "'thanksgiving' wherein the Son of God unites redeemed humanity to Himself in a hymn of thanksgiving and praise."

The Pope concluded his catechesis by indicating that "in the Eucharist, uniting herself to Christ's sacrifice, the Church gives voice to the praise of the whole of creation. Each of the faithful must correspond, committing himself to offer his existence, his 'body' - as St. Paul says - in 'a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God'."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Msgr. Andrea Bruno Mazzocato, rector of the episcopal seminary of Treviso, Italy, as bishop of Adria-Rovigo (area 1,193, population 201,745, Catholics 199,983, priests 183, religious 356), Italy. The bishop-elect was born in S. Trovaso, Italy, in 1948. He succeeds Bishop Martino Gomiero, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

The Synod of Bishops of the Syrian Catholic Church, meeting at Charfet, Lebanon, on September 16, 2000 decided to transfer Archbishop Denys Antoine Beylouni from the archieparchy of Aleppo of the Syrians to the patriarchal curia.

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CARDINAL SODANO RECEIVES ISRAELI MINISTER SHIMON PERES

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 2000 (VIS) - In a declaration released last evening, Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls stated that "this evening, October 10, Shimon Peres, Israeli minister of Regional cooperation, paid a visit in the Vatican to Cardinal Angelo Sodano and Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran.

"During the conversations there was an exchange of viewpoints on the dramatic situation in the Middle East.

"For its part, the Vatican reiterated the priority of ending the armed encounters and the urgency of undertaking dialogue between the sides, with respect for the legitimate aspirations of the two peoples and the accords which have been subscribed to."

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TELEGRAM FOR THE DEATH OF CARDINAL PALAZZINI

VATICAN CITY, OCT 11, 2000 (VIS) - Below is the text of the telegram sent by the Pope to Lino Palazzini for the death in Rome this morning at the age of 88 of his cousin, Cardinal Pietro Palazzini, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints:

"Having learned with great sadness the news of the death of your beloved cousin, Cardinal Pietro Palazzini, I wish to express my profound participation in your pain for the death of the dear and illustrious cardinal. He was a renowned jurist and moralist who for many years served the Church with loyalty, competence and commendable priestly spirit, especially in his universal teaching enriched by numerous theological-moral, canonical and hagiographic publications and in his long service to the Holy See; first at the Apostolic Signature, then in the Congregation for Religious, later as secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy and finally as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. With gratitude to the Lord, I recall the great harvest of good reaped by the late lamented cardinal and, in the light of Christian hope, I invoke upon his elect soul the eternal prize promised to the just. With affection I impart, to you and your dear ones, a comforting apostolic blessing."

At 6 p.m. on Friday, October 13, at the altar of the Cathedra in St. Peter's Basilica, John Paul II will preside at a concelebrated funeral mass in memory of Cardinal Palazzini.

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