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      VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- From the city of Rome, 27,520 volunteers will be available to assist pilgrims visiting during the Jubilee Year.

      That figure was furnished on June 24 by the center for volunteer work connected with the Jubilee celebrations, an office which has now been in existence for four months, under the aegis of the central planning committee chaired by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray. In February, the Italian government furnished the volunteer center with documentation as a welcoming center for visitors; that measure made it possible for the volunteer corps to enlist young men who would otherwise be eligible for military service.

      The volunteer corps is organized along hierarchical lines, with 300 "experts" coordinating 6,000 team leaders, each of whom will in turn be responsible for 20 volunteers. The volunteers have been recruited from different cities and dioceses, so that they will have the expertise necessary to help visitors who are headed for other parts of the country. In fact, while the majority of volunteers are Italian, some are from other countries, and altogether there are 23 countries represented in the corps.

      The volunteer service is dedicated to filling "the most immediate needs" of the Jubilee organizers, said Professor Donato Mosella, the director of the volunteers' welcoming center. Among the special projects to be handled by volunteers are the service to aged and handicapped pilgrims.

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