CONTRIBUTE TO BUILDING A GREAT COMMON EUROPEAN HOME

VATICAN CITY, JUN 11, 2003 (VIS) - The Holy Father sent a letter to Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, archbishop of Vienna, Austria, upon today's inauguration in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna of the "Mitteleuropaischer Katholikentag 2003" (Central European Catholic Day 2003) whose theme is: "Christ, Europe's Hope."
In the letter, written in German, the Pope greets participants in this gathering who come from Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. John Paul II affirms that this Catholic day "aims to help many Christian to ... collaborate patiently in the healing of the wounds of unhappy division on the continent and to contribute in this way with dynamism to the building of a great common European home."

"If Europe wants to be a harmonious association of human beings and peoples that live with deep respect and mutual benevolence," he concludes, "Christ must inspire this continent."

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