DAUGHTERS OF MARY, HELP OF CHRISTIANS: PROCLAIM GOD'S SUPREMACY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 8, 2002 (VIS) - Today at noon the Pope received participants in the General Chapter of the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians. The religious have been reflecting on the theme, "In the renewed Covenant, the commitment of an active citizen," according to the idea of their founders, Sts. John Bosco and Mary Domenic Mazzarello, "to form good Christians and upright citizens."

John Paul II told the Salesians that this idea required them to "bear witness to hope on so many frontiers of the modern world, knowing how to find with missionary audacity new ways of evangelization and human promotion, especially in the service of the younger generations."

"In order to carry out this arduous mission," he continued, "it is necessary above all to maintain constant communion with Jesus, contemplating incessantly His face in prayer and then serving Him, through your brothers, with all your energies. ... In a time marked by a worrying culture, empty and senseless, proclaim resoundingly the supremacy of God Who listens always to the cry of the oppressed and the afflicted."

The Holy Father underlined that sanctity was their "basic and urgent duty. It is the best contribution that you can make to the new evangelization, as well as the guarantee of an authentic evangelical service for those most in need."

After emphasizing the witness of heroic fidelity, confirmed by martyrdom, of some members of the religious family, the Pope said: "You must pursue walking in their wake, in environments which are sometimes marked by tension and fear, by opposing positions and divisions and by extremism and violence, that are capable of obscuring hope."

John Paul II concluded by affirming that "the vast horizons of evangelization and the urgent need to bear witness to the Gospel message to all, without distinctions, make up the field of your apostolate."

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