NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II will receive young people from the city of Rome at a special audience on Thursday, March 25-- the feast of the Annunciation.

      The papal audience will be devoted to theme: "The Father loves you." That same theme has been chosen for the 14th World Youth Day, which will be observed on Palm Sunday in dioceses all over the world.

      More than 22,000 free tickets have been distributed in Rome for the special audience, at which the Holy Father will speak on the theme of forgiveness, and answer questions from the young people. The meeting will also provide the occasion for the first performance of the anthem commissioned for the next World Youth Day meeting, scheduled to take place in Rome in August 2000.

      Noticias Eclesiales also reports in Church News Wire Service that the Holy Father said, "Dear young people, hold fast to the love that God gives you. Remain anchored to this certainty, the only certainty capable of giving a meaning, strength and happiness to your lives. Remember he has written your names on the palm of his hand." With these words Pope John Paul II addressed the millions of youths that will celebrate the XIV World Youth Day this weekend.

      The event will be held on March 28th at a diocesan level, and will be a special moment of preparation for the great Jubilee for Youth that will be carried out in Rome from the 15th to the 20th of August next year. In the document, the Holy Father urges youth to be "witnesses of the love of the Father, in the Church as well as in the diverse environments in which their daily existence develops."

      Later on, reminding that "unfortunately, the more man loses the sense of sin, the less he appeals for forgiveness to God," he said that "although it is not always conscious and clear, in the heart of man exists a deep longing for God. On the other hand, He always reaches out in the search for an encounter offering us reconciliation."

      The preparatory Message for the Youth Day concludes with a request that the Virgin Mary may guide youth "toward Jesus, so that, following Him, they may learn how to cultivate their relationship with the Heavenly Father. As in the wedding at Cana, she invites all to do whatever the Son tells them, knowing that this is the path in order to arrive to the house of the 'merciful Father'."