MILLENNIUM OF BIRTH OF ST. JOHN GUALBERTO

VATICAN CITY, MAR 23, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was a letter from the Pope to Dom Lorenzo Russo, general abbot of the Benedictine Congregation of Vallombrosa, central Italy, on the millennium of the birth of their founder, St. John Gualberto.

John Paul II writes that St. John Gualberto "was chosen by God so that in a difficult moment for the history of the Church, in a period of profound transformation which was shaking the world of religious orders, he contributed to reawaken the desire of a Christian monastic life without compromise."

"Your founder's example should inspire you to commit yourselves to the task of spreading the spirituality of communion, first of all in your monastic family and then in the ecclesial community and beyond its boundaries."

The Holy Father expresses the hope that the millennium might intensify in the monks their following of Christ and, according to the saint's example, that their monasteries "might become ever more 'houses of God'."

"I wish to repeat," he concludes, "what I wrote in the Post-Synodal Exhortation 'Vita Consacrata': 'The Church ... wishes to hold up before the world the example of communities in which solitude is overcome through concern for one another, in which communication inspires in everyone a sense of shared responsibility, and in which wounds are healed through forgiveness, and each person's commitment to communion is strengthened.' May your father and founder's exhortation remain engraved on your hearts: inviolably safeguard charity!"

JPII-LETTER;ST. JOHN GUALBERTO;...;RUSSO;VIS;19990323;Word: 260;