HOLY FATHER EXTENDS CHRISTMAS GREETINGS TO ROMAN CURIA

VATICAN CITY, DEC 21, 1999 (VIS) - This morning at 11:30 in the Clementine Hall, Pope John Paul met with members of the College of Cardinals and the Roman Curia, and reminded them that today is the last time this century and millennium that they meet for this traditional exchange of Christmas greetings.

"We wish to live this encounter," he began his talk, "in the awareness that we constitute a most special community, that of the closest collaborators of the Bishop of Rome, the successor of the Apostle Peter. ... If the vocation of the Successor of Peter, surrounded by his collaborators, has a particular meaning in the Church, it is precisely because it is a ministry, a service. Christ said to Peter: 'Confirm your brothers'."

In St. Luke's account, continued the Holy Father, "Peter emerges in all his fragility. The power 'to confirm' does not therefore come from his own capacities: it comes from the power of Christ, who prays for Him. And it is thanks to the power of Christ that he can sustain his brothers notwithstanding his personal weakness. It is necessary to keep in mind this truth about the 'ministerium petrinum'. He who is the Successor of Peter and exercises such a ministry can never forget this, and those who, in whatever capacity, participate in this ministry must never forget it."

"May today's meditation (on the petrine ministry) cross the threshold of the third millennium and be received by those who will come after us, who after us will assume, as Successors of Peter and their collaborators, the 'ministerium petrinum', to exercise it according to the will of Christ."

Pope John Paul then reviewed the three-year period of preparation for the now imminent Great Jubilee of the year 2000. He highlighted initiatives in churches, at both the local and universal levels, including the five continental synods and the consignment in 1999 of two Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortations ("Ecclesia in America" and "Ecclesia in Asia").

Other important events of this past year, he added, include his trips to Mexico City, St. Louis, Romania, Poland, India and Georgia. On the ecumenical level, he underscored the trips to Romania and Georgia, and the signing of the document on justification with the Lutherans. He also mentioned initiatives in the area of inter-religious dialogue, emphasizing the October meeting in St. Peter's Square with representatives of other religions.

"The announcement of salvation," remarked Pope John Paul, "cannot fail to be accompanied by an active witnessing to charity." And he underlined the Holy See's efforts "to support the path of the People of God who, in their local pastoral realities in a thousand ways are charged with caring for the person and being at the service of the most needy."

"May this Christmas which starts the Jubilee Year celebrations," the Pope said in closing, "be for each of us an ascent to the mountain of the Lord. ... Yes, with faith we will hasten our steps towards the extraordinary Jubilee Year, full of grace and especially expressed by the gift of the indulgence."

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