QUEEN ELIZABETH II IS WELCOMED BY POPE JOHN PAUL

VATICAN CITY, OCT 17, 2000 (VIS) - Pope John Paul welcomed Queen Elizabeth II today to the Vatican, exactly 20 years to the day of their first meeting here. They met again in England in May, 1982 and the Pope recalled that his "predecessors Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII first bade you welcome here."

"Your Majesty's visit," the Holy Father remarked in his speech, "immediately brings to mind the rich heritage of British Christianity and all that Great Britain has contributed to the building of Christian Europe. ... Through that long history, relations between the United Kingdom and the Holy See have not always been untroubled; long years of common inheritance were followed by the sad years of division." He pointed to the "cordiality" which has now emerged in relations, and said "there can be no turning back from the ecumenical goal we have set ourselves in obedience to the Lord's command."

The Pope stated that both the past and future "demand of us a sense of shared purpose," especially in Europe "as it seeks a unity capable of excluding forever the kind of conflicts which have been so much a part of the past." This unity, he added, must have both structure and content. "Only by preserving and reinvigorating the highest ideals and achievements of its heritage - in politics, in law, in art, in culture, in morality and in spirituality - will the Europe of the future be a viable and worthwhile endeavor."

Turning to globalization, John Paul II praised "the promise of greater prosperity and cohesion" which it brings, but lamented the "ever-growing gap between rich and poor" in so many parts of the world. "This troubling phenomenon has many causes, but the problem will certainly not be solved unless peoples and their leaders accept worldwide solidarity and cooperation as ethical imperatives that impel and mobilize the consciences of individuals and nations. I cannot but express by appreciation of Britain's recent undertaking to effect a total cancellation of the debt owed it by the heavily indebted poor countries."

The Holy Father concluded with words of praise for Queen Elizabeth: "Your Majesty, for many years now and through times of great change you have reigned with a dignity and sense of duty which have edified millions of people around the world."

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