BUILD A UNITED AND PEACEFUL SOCIETY

VATICAN CITY, JAN 14, 2002 (VIS) - This morning, John Paul II received representatives from the regional administration of Lazio, Italy, with their president, Francesco Storace; from the town hall of Rome, accompanied by the mayor, Walter Veltroni, and from the provincial administration of Rome accompanied by their president Silvano Moffa, for the traditional exchange of New Year greetings.

In his address, the Pope spoke of the need to "continue tirelessly in efforts to build a united and peaceful society. ... Responsible attention to the needs of the less fortunate, a more just division of resources and integration between different cultures are the necessary premises for a truly human future."

After mentioning legislative measures approved last year that favor the family based on matrimony, he said: "For example, one particularly urgent need is to help young couples, enabling them to face matrimony with serenity and to assume their responsibilities in educating their children."

In the city of Rome, he said, as well as in the province and in the region, many people live "in conditions of partial or total poverty and marginalization, ... a large percentage of them immigrants. ... Whether those involved are the homeless; elderly people living alone; children or families in hardship; immigrants; the unemployed; prisoners; the terminally ill or other categories in difficulty, their existence should never be considered useless."
The Holy Father went on to refer to health-care, particularly for the less well off. He expressed the desire that with the cooperation of institutions involved in this field, including Catholic institutions, "it may become possible to give people an efficient health service, one respectful of individual dignity. I am certain that the recently-stipulated agreement concerning religious assistance in hospitals and nursing homes will contribute to meeting a real need of patients in those places."

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