CIRCLE OF ST. PETER: EXTENSION OF THE POPE'S "CHARITABLE HAND"

VATICAN CITY, MAY 10, 2002 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received the directors and members of the Circle of St. Peter, a Rome-based charity organization, for their traditional annual audience when they present him with Peter's Pence, the collection taken up every June 29, Day of the Pope's Charity.

John Paul II highlighted that the service offered by the Circle of St. Peter is "perhaps little known to the large communications media, yet it constitutes a sure and welcoming point of reference for those who, alone and abandoned, have to face difficult situations and serious health problems."

"In your many activities," he said, "may time never be lacking to listen to the Word of God, and may the Gospel be the 'vade mecum' of your love for the poor. In the face of the forms of neo-paganism, that fascinate so many people, I trust that your judicious and devoted charity, nourished by intense prayer, may be an eloquent sign of God's tenderness for each human being."

The Holy Father concluded by affirming that "in your important charitable work, you aim to bear witness to the Pope's solicitude for those in need. The Circle of St. Peter is, in a certain sense, an extension of his "charitable hand' towards the most poor and abandoned."

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