AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, SEP 19, 2003 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences two prelates from the Uganda Episcopal Conference on their "ad limina" vist:

- Bishop Henry Apaloryamam Ssentongo of Moroto.

- Bishop Denis Kiwanuka Lote of Kotido.
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LOOK FOR WAYS FOR DEEPER COMMUNION

VATICAN CITY, SEP 19, 2003 (VIS) - Today at Castelgandolfo the Pope received a group of priests of the Greek Orthodox Church and recalled his visit with His Beatitude Christodoulos, archbishop of Athens and all Greece, and the Greek Orthodox Church during the Jubilee Year.

"We must continue to build on solid foundations the fraternal and evangelical ties that we experienced on that occasion. Your visit to Rome is a valid initiative in that sense in order to get to know and appreciate each other better and to advance relations that facilitate communion."

John Paul II assured them that he asked the Lord "constantly to prepare us to open our hearts to His prayer that 'all may be one', and to make us capable of genuine obedience to His will in order to look together for ways for closer collaboration and an ever-deeper communion."

He concluded by saying: "I hope that your visit to the holy sites of Rome, with gatherings, conversations, occasions of dialogue, may be a positive and useful experience for your priestly life. May the Holy Spirit always accompany your ministry and strengthen the testimony that each one of you gives to the Gospel of our common Lord."

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, SEP 18, 2003 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father received in separate audiences:

- Kjell Magne Bondevik, prime minister of Norway, accompanied by his wife and an entourage.

- Nabih Berri, president of the Parliament of Lebanon, accompanied by his wife and an entourage.

- Jean Wagner, ambassador of Luxembourg, accompanied by his wife, on his farewell visit.

- Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio in the United States of America and permanent observer to the Organization of American States.

- Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, apostolic nuncio in Senegal, Mali, Capo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and apostolic delegate in Mauritania.

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MEETING OF CATHOLIC CHARISMATIC RENEWAL LEADERS

VATICAN CITY, SEP 18, 2003 (VIS) - A twelve-day meeting of an estimated 1,000 leaders of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement started today at the Mariapoli Center in Castelgandolfo on the theme "Twelve Days of Blessings." Leaders of other ecclesial movements, such as Chiara Lubich of the Focolare, and of other Christian Churches are also expected to attend.
Cardinal James Francis Stafford and Bishop Stanislaw Rylko, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, will preside at the meeting's main celebrations. The participants will reflect on the current situation of the movement and look at some of the challenges facing it in the future.

The twelve-day encounter has three distinct phases: the meeting of leaders, a four-day spiritual retreat led by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M.Cap., preacher of the papal household, on the theme "Holiness, a Challenge for the Third Millennium," and a trip of several days to a number of shrines in south central Italy, including that of St. Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo.

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement was born on university campuses in 1967 in the United States. It spread rapidly and is now present in 70 countries on five continents through a "strong rediscovery of the faith and the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christians," according to a communique published about the meeting.

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POPE TO SIGN 2001 SYNOD EXHORTATION ON OCTOBER 16

VATICAN CITY, SEP 18, 2003 (VIS) - This morning at Castelgandolfo John Paul II received participants in the traditional course of study and formation organized by the Congregation for Bishops for bishops who were recently appointed.

The Pope told the prelates who come from different countries that the pastoral mission that has been entrusted to them "is exalting but today it is also particularly arduous and difficult," due to problems and uncertainties and the fact that many Christians seem to be "disoriented and without hope." For this reason, he added, "we pastors are called to proclaim the Gospel and to be witnesses of hope, with our gaze turned to the Cross, to the mystery of the triumph and fecundity of Christ crucified."

After recalling that the episcopal ministry, in light of theological hope, was the theme of the last Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, celebrated in 2001, the Holy Father announced that on October 16, on the 25th anniversary of his pontificate, he will sign the post-synodal apostolic exhortation.

John Paul II emphasized that the episcopal ministry "calls us to lead a holy life. May you be the live and visible image of the Good Shepherd. Be vigilant over your flock. ... Love the Church more than yourselves! Live in it and for it, giving yourselves entirely to pastoral service."

"Our apostolate," he continued, "must be an overflow of our interior life. ... Be men of prayer! With your example, you will show the primacy of spiritual life, that is, the primacy of grace which is the soul of every apostolate."

The Pope urged the prelates to take care of their "first collaborators, priests" and he spoke about the urgency of "adequate pastoral ministry for vocations at the beginning of the third millennium."

"Vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are a gift from God that needs to be asked for insistently in prayer. But," he concluded, "they are also the fruit of strong and healthy families and ecclesial communities where the figure of the priest is highly regarded and valued. May the choice of educators in the seminaries be made with the greatest care because only the personal testimony of a joyful and generous life is capable of leading the souls of young people today."

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