NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- Pope John Paul II met with nearly 4,000 university students and professors affiliated with Opus Dei in a March 30 audience.

      The Pope's visitors, who represented 60 different countries and at least 400 different institutions of higher education, were in Rome for an annual conference sponsored by Opus Dei on the theme: "solidarity and citizenship."

      In his remarks to the group, the Holy Father observed that Christian citizens have an obligation to make known "the love and freedom of Christ" within "all aspects of modern life." In that effort, he continued, the first step involves a struggle "within the hearts of men," to eliminate "everything that separates them from God and distances them from their brothers and sisters." The Pope said that Christian solidarity is a "spiritual attitude," explaining: "Justice needs a soul, and that soul is charity."