POPE JOHN PAUL II TURNS 82

VATICAN CITY, MAY 18, 2002 (VIS) - Pope John Paul II turned 82 today and marked his birthday by presiding at an audience in the morning for 7,000 participants in a meeting sponsored by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. A student band played Happy Birthday, and they were joined in song by the pilgrims present in the Paul VI Hall.

Following this encounter the Holy Father went to Largo Braschi, on the left side of St. Peter's Basilica, where he blessed a statue of St. Maria Josefa del Corazon de Jesus Sancho de Guerra, foundress of the Servants of Jesus of Charity. The statue had been placed in an outside niche of the basilica.

He had lunch with his closest advisors in the Roman Curia and then spent part of the afternoon going over some of the speeches he will give during next week's trip to Azerbaijan and Bulgaria.

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