TUESDAY
February 1, 2000
volume 11, no. 22
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NEWS & VIEWS     Acknowledgments
Articles provided through Catholic World News and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and International Dossiers, Daily Dispatches and Features at ZENIT International News Agency. CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.

THE CONSECRATED ARE A "GIFT FOR THE WHOLE CHURCH"
John Paul II Prepares Jubilee of Consecrated Life

    VATICAN CITY, JAN 30 (ZENIT).- The Holy Father has invited all consecrated persons in the Church to join in a 3-day retreat to renew their commitments before God. The consecrated life "is a gift for the whole Church," he stressed in his "Angelus" message.

    Speaking to the more than 700,000 women and 215,000 men consecrated in Orders, religious Congregations, or Societies of apostolic life in the world, the Pope encouraged them "to cross the Holy Door with confidence and hope, renewing their total disposition to make of their own life a song of praise to the Most Holy Trinity."

    As the Pontiff pointed out, over the next three days Rome is preparing for the Jubilee of Consecrated Life (February 2). The celebration will culminate next Wednesday with a Mass presided by the Holy Father himself in St. Peter's Square, in which thousands of consecrated men and women will participate.

    The Bishop of Rome invited all of Catholics to join this celebration spiritually, "because their vocation is a gift for the whole Church! The Bride of Christ, the Church herself, owes much of her beauty to the innumerable charisms of consecration that the Holy Spirit has inspired in the faithful over the centuries, beginning with the apostolic community until today. By their very presence, consecrated persons are a sign of Christ and of his lifestyle, and while they invite us to put nothing before God or his Kingdom, they are an example to all of generosity in prayer and dedication to their neighbor."

    Finally, the Pope proposed the evangelical witness of these men and women as "an effective help to walk in the new millennium according to God's plan."

    Contemplative Orders will also participate in the Jubilee of Consecrated Life, joining spiritually in the special celebrations from their cloistered convents and monasteries. John Paul II has made it possible for the Holy Year to be celebrated not just in Rome or Jerusalem -- the two principal centers of the Jubilee, but also in Cathedrals and shrines of each of the dioceses of the world, as well as in places of residence of religious, without special pilgrimages but, of course, with a decisive conversion of heart, an encounter with Christ and the sacraments, and with special works of charity.

    There are more than 50,000 cloistered nuns in the world. Cloistered monks are less numerous; among them, the most numerous are the Trappists, who have about 100 monasteries in the world, with over 2,300 members. They are followed by the Carthusians and Camaldolese hermits. ZE00013007

          

February 1, 2000
volume 11, no. 22
NEWS & VIEWS

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