AUDIENCE: FREE THE OPPRESSED AND MAKE JUSTICE REIGN

VATICAN CITY, JAN 10, 2001 (VIS) - In today's general audience which was held in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father spoke on the "Commitment to freedom and justice."

The prophets, said John Paul II, remind us "that we must commit ourselves to free the oppressed and bring justice to reign. ... The service of charity coherently associated with faith and the liturgy, the commitment to justice, the struggle against all forms of oppression and the protection of individual dignity are not, for Christians, expressions of philanthropy motivated purely by the fact of belonging to the human family. Rather, they are choices and actions of a profoundly religious nature, they are true sacrifices and pleasing to God."

Church commitment to reflection on this matter, he continued, "should receive a special impulse from the experience of the Jubilee. In its biblical roots, such commitment is a celebration of solidarity" that "could be expressed, as I have repeatedly suggested, in the total eradication or at least reduction of the international debt of poor countries."

Another Jubilee commitment he added, is freedom from all forms of slavery and the promotion of a just, free and united society. "Lived in this way, the recently-concluded Jubilee will continue to produce abundant fruits of justice, freedom and love."

After reading summaries of his catechesis in different languages, the Pope addressed a group of Croatian pilgrims in their own language. He expressed the hope that "this extraordinary event of faith and grace may help the Christians of our time to give witness of God's immense love for men. May they know how to lead a life permeated by sanctity and to work with tireless and generous charity, as I wrote in my Apostolic letter 'Novo millennio ineunte'."

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