VATICAN CITY (CNS): Cardinals from around the world will be invited to Rome to celebrate Pope John Paul’s silver jubilee as pontiff in October.
Pope John Paul said an important theme of his nearly 25 years as Pope has been trying to bring Christ’s liberating message to people in all walks of life.
He made the remarks in a meeting on May 9 with participants in a Rome conference that aimed to review the first quarter century of his pontificate from a variety of pastoral and theological perspectives.
In his short speech, the Pope did not present a review of his papacy, but offered a few thematic pointers.
“In every phase and stage of my university life and pastoral ministry, one of the essential points of reference for me was attention to the human person, who is at the centre of any philosophical or theological investigation,” he said.
For that reason, he said, he found the theme of the conference appropriate: “The Church at the Service of Man”.
He said that 24 years ago, in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis, he emphasised that the path of the Church’s mission runs through the daily lives of human beings.
