TO CARMELITE SISTERS: UNITE CONTEMPLATION AND MISSIONARY DRIVE

VATICAN CITY, SEP 29, 2000 (VIS) - This morning, the Pope received participants in the 18th general chapter of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters. The congregation has a presence in 35 countries on four continents.

John Paul II asked for "abundant divine gifts" for the new superior general, Maria Esperanza Izco, and her councilors, that they may guide the congregation "with prudence, accompanying their sisters with a fraternal spirit in order that they become women of experience of God, audacious in their response to the challenges of the mission in the third millennium."

"Indeed," he continued, "harmoniously bringing together the contemplative dimension and the missionary impulse, two fundamental pillars of your religious identify, is a particularly acute necessity in an age so often threatened by the fragmentation or superficiality of human existence."

The Holy Father thanked the religious for their commitment "to the ever-urgent task of evangelization and service to the cause of man, especially to the most needy." He concluded by asking them not to cease "giving attention to the emerging necessities of our time, bringing thereto a response born in the heart of Christ and in the mission of the Church."

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RESTORATION OF THE VATICAN NECROPOLIS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 29, 2000 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press Office, Cardinal Virgilio Noe, president of the Fabric of St. Peter's, and Franco Tato, managing director of ENEL (the Italian national electricity company), presented the recently completed restoration and illumination work in the tomb of St. Peter and the Vatican necropolis.

Peter's tomb lies within the Vatican necropolis, which is situated below St. Peter's Basilica. The work was undertaken with the aim of conserving the walls, stuccos and frescos, and of giving prominence, through suitable illumination, to the tomb of the first Pope and the other mausolea.

ENEL, through its "Light for Art" program, has financed the project, which has taken more than two years to accomplish. The results will allow visitors to see, in a different and more profound way, the colors and forms that were previously obscured.

A series of innovative technical solutions has made it possible for the illumination to be less intrusive, thus minimizing the process of photosynthesis. Another new system enables the illumination to be regulated, adapting it to the historical and architectural complexity of the site.

The websites www.enel.it and www.vatican.va will contain further information on the restoration and illumination works.

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JUBILEE OF FAMILIES TO BE PRESENTED NEXT TUESDAY

VATICAN CITY, SEP 29, 2000 (VIS) - In the Holy See Press Office at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday October 3, there will be a presentation of the Jubilee of Families, which takes place in Rome October 14-15.

Taking part in the press conference will be Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, Bishop Francisco Gil Hellin and Msgr. Francesco Di Felice, respectively president, secretary and under-secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family. Also present will be Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe, secretary general of the Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

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STATUE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA, A "PILGRIM" T0 ROME

VATICAN CITY, SEP 29, 2000 (VIS) - The statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be in the Vatican for three days during the October 6 to 8 Jubilee of Bishops. On Sunday, October 8, at the concluding Mass, there will be the Act of Entrustment to Mary, "almost a coronation of the Great Jubilee," according to a communique from the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.
The statue will arrive at Rome's Ciampino Airport on Friday, October 6 and be brought to the Holy Father's private chapel in the papal apartments. On Saturday, the 7th, memory of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, the statue will be transferred in a procession to St. Peter's Basilica to be venerated by the faithful. In the afternoon it will be brought to St. Peter's Square where Pope John Paul, together with the bishops who are celebrating their Jubilee, will pray the rosary. That same evening the statue will be brought to the Vatican's "Ecclesia Mater" monastery of cloistered nuns.

On Sunday, October 8, the Holy Father will celebrate Mass in St. Peter's Square, during which the Act of Entrustment to Mary will be read, thus placing the Church and the world under Mary's protection at the start of the new millennium. Afterwards the statue will be returned to the Pope's private chapel.

On Monday morning, Cardinal Angelo Sodano will preside at a farewell ceremony in the San Damaso courtyard. The statue will return to the shrine in Fatima, Portugal, that same day.

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ARCHBISHOP MARTINO SPEAKS AT U.N. ON DEVELOPMENT

VATICAN CITY, SEP 29, 2000 (VIS) - Archbishop Renato Martino, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations, spoke yesterday before the Third Committee of the 55th session of the General Assembly on Item 103, Social Development.

Referring to the U.N.'s 2000 Report on the World Social Situation, the archbishop expressed the Holy See's satisfaction that the "Report testifies to a growing awareness of human dignity, and a more lively concern that human rights should be respected."

He highlighted, however, the "persistent" and "often widening gap between the haves and the have-nots characterized by the unequal distribution of wealth." Responsibility "lies in part" with "the developing nations themselves," he said, though "developed and wealthy countries continue to furnish inadequate assistance to developing and poor ones."

The nuncio then spoke of "a critical yet often underestimated aspect of development, namely that development cannot be limited to economics and politics, but must pay attention to cultural and human factors. Genuine development must be integral," taking "into account human beings in the totality of their bodily and spiritual existence."

Calling culture "an all-embracing climate rather than an articulated system," Archbishop Martino added that "it is a social force that encompasses individuals and welds them into communities. It shapes their prejudices, ideas, values, habits, attitudes, tastes and priorities."

"In this regard," the archbishop affirmed, "the family plays a critical role," being "the natural and fundamental unit of society. ... It is a stable community of love and solidarity uniquely suited to teaching and handing on the cultural, ethical, social and spiritual values that are essential for the development and well-being of its members and of society."

Concluding, Archbishop Martino stated that "precisely because of the essentially moral character of development, the main obstacles to development will be overcome only by means of essentially moral decisions. ... The Holy See proposes a solidarity which accepts the fact of interdependence and raises it to the moral plane."

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, SEP 29, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

- Maria Eugenia Brizuela de Avila, Salvadorian minister of foreign affairs, accompanied by her entourage.
- Yossi Beilin, Israeli minister of justice and 'ad interim' minister for religious affairs.
- Margus Laidre, ambassador of Estonia, on a farewell visit.
- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, emeritus of Vercelli, respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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