JOHN PAUL WELCOMES CLARETIANS, IN ROME FOR GENERAL CHAPTER

VATICAN CITY, SEP 8, 2003 (VIS) - Ninety participants in the 23rd General Chapter of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known as the Claretians, were welcomed today by the Holy Father at the summer papal residence of Castelgandolfo.

In his talk to them in Spanish, the Pope noted that "for an adequate understanding of the signs of the times and the evangelizing task that the Claretian missionaries must promote and develop in the most varied regions of the earth, the orientations offered by the post-synodal exhortations directed at the various continents would be very useful for you. Likewise, for this time of great change, the Apostolic Letter 'Novo millennio ineunte' offers you the proper frame for an apostolic spirituality fundamentally centered on the person of Jesus."

"When on the vast horizon of society," he added, "one glimpses more than a few signs of a widespread culture of death, in reflecting on the theme of your Chapter, 'That they may have life', you feel sent by the Lord Jesus to proclaim the God of life. These are moments in which life, an immense gift of the Father, must be defended, cultivated and dignified, above all among the most defenseless, through a word of hope and selfless gestures of welcome and solidarity."

He said he hoped their Chapter would allow them to give, "through evangelical words and gestures, direction and encouragement to all members of the Institute."

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