PAPAL AUDIENCE FOR 44 NEW CARDINALS AND FAMILY MEMBERS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 23, 2001 (VIS) - This morning in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope received the 44 new cardinals, with their family members and the faithful who had participated in Wednesday's Consistory. He addressed them in the cardinals' various languages: Italian, French, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Latvian.

"In returning to your dioceses," he said in French, "be reaffirmed in your faith and in your love for Christ and His Church, with a renewed desire to follow the Lord, to conform your lives to His!"

To the English-speaking cardinals and faithful, the Pope expressed the hope that "the communities of faith to which you belong become more and more true schools of prayer, contemplation and mission."

John Paul II then addressed the Latin American and Spanish cardinals, with these words: "You are now asked for a greater commitment to the service of the Church, to the point of giving your lives for the Gospel, as did the Saint we commemorate today, St. Polycarp of Smyrna. This also involves a greater responsibility for your ecclesial communities and, above all, for those, like you, who are closest to them."

Speaking in Polish, the Pope gave thanks to Divine Providence "for the fact that the Latin Church in Ukraine" - whose new cardinal is Marian Jaworski, of Lviv of the Latins - "gives the witness of living faith, which has survived in the years of oppression and trial." He also welcomed Polish Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.

"Pray," he said in Ukrainian, "that this sign of unity," the creation of two Ukrainian cardinals, one of the Latin and another of the Eastern rite, "may become a pledge of complete communion among the Christians of the West and the East. In the hope of meeting you during the visit I will make, please God, in the upcoming month of June, I send to all of your compatriots a cordial greeting."

In Lithuanian the Holy Father affirmed that raising Audrys Juozas Backis to the dignity of cardinal "serves to honor the entire Church in Lithuania for its fidelity to Christ, bought at a dear price during the years of communist domination."

At the conclusion of his discourse, John Paul II reminded the new cardinals that their ministry, "diverse for each, is always at the service of the one Christ and of His mystical Body. With fraternal esteem, I encourage you to proceed in your spiritual and apostolic mission, which today has experienced a very important stage. Keep your gaze fixed upon Christ."

Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls, commenting on the media presence this past week, stated that "this eighth consistory of John Paul II's pontificate was also a great event from the point of view of communications. The Holy See Press Office gave accreditation expressly for the consistory to 250 special envoys, to which must be added the almost 400 permanently accredited journalists. There were 180 radio stations which had link-ups to Vatican Radio. In addition, 74 television crews and 40 photo agencies were accredited."

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