Address following 20th Anniversary Concert

ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
POPE JOHN PAUL II
AFTER A CONCERT TO MARK THE
20th ANNIVERSARY OF HIS PONTIFICATE

Thursday, 5 November 1998

Venerable Brothers,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have gratefully taken part in this special homage and I am now pleased to extend my cordial greetings to each of you, with a particularly respectful greeting to the authorities who have wished to honour this encounter with their presence.

I thank the members of the Italian Inter-parliamentary Group and their colleagues from all over the world for the commitment they have made to contributing together to the preparation of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, taking into account both the meeting which concerns them directly as politicians and, more generally, the ethical-social objectives of the Holy Year. In this regard I am delighted that the proposal to reduce the foreign debt of the poorest countries, and that of a moratorium on executions at least during the Jubilee Year, are supported by persons with senior institutional posts who can therefore contribute effectively to their acceptance.

I would like to say a special “thank you” to those who offered me a message of good wishes this evening: to Senator Ombretta Fumagalli Carulli and to each of the distinguished political and religious personages who were linked up with us from a distance.

I thank the conductor Paolo Olmi with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Rome Opera and the Boys Choir of Poznañ as well as the very fine soloists and I congratulate them for their excellent performance.

This evening — as well as being a special demonstration of closeness to the Pope — offered a significant witness of unity centred on the fundamental spiritual and ethical values of the human person and the community.

Upon all of you present here and upon everyone who has joined us through the media, I invoke abundant blessings from the Lord.