JUBILEE OF BISHOPS TO BE CELEBRATED THIS WEEKEND

VATICAN CITY, OCT 4, 2000 (VIS) - The program has been published for the October 6 to 8 Jubilee of Bishops, which will take place in Rome on the theme "The Bishop: Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World." A highlight of this Jubilee year celebration will be the presence of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in Rome for this three-day period.

Of the approximately 4,200 bishops in the world, active and retired, an estimated 1,300 will be in Rome for their Jubilee.

At 5 p.m. on Friday, October 6, there will be a penitential celebration, with the possibility of individual confession, in St. John Lateran Basilica. During this rite a collection will be taken up for the poorest Churches in the world.

Saturday, October 7, at 9:30 in the morning there will be a missionary celebration, "Euntes docete," in the basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls. This will be followed at noon by an audience with Pope John Paul II in the Paul VI Hall.

That same afternoon there will be the recitation of the rosary with the Holy Father before the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The procession will start at 5:45 p.m. inside St. Peter's Basilica, with the statue of Our Lady, accompanied by the Holy Father, and proceed to St. Peter's Square where, at 6 p.m., the Pope will lead the meditations on the mysteries of the rosary. Cardinals and bishops and five families from different continents will join him. The recitation of the fifth mystery will be led by Sr. Lucia and the Carmelite sisters of the monastery of Coimbra, Portugal. Sr. Lucia is the sole survivor of the three children to whom Our Lady appeared in Fatima in 1917.

At the end of this celebration the statue of Mary will cross St. Peter's Square and be brought in procession to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican. Joining the procession will be students from the Vatican's Pius X pre-seminary as well as religious who live in Vatican City.
On Sunday, October 8, at 10 a.m. in St. Peter's Square, Pope John Paul will preside at a Eucharistic concelebration during which he will read the Act of Entrustment to Mary in front of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. All bishops present will join the Holy Father in the Act of Entrustment.

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