Dear Friends in Christ,

It gives me great pleasure to meet the members of Legatus, on your annual pilgrimage of faith to the Eternal City, the place which preserves the memory of the supreme witness of the Apostles Peter and Paul.

You have come here to express and strengthen your ties of faith and love with the Successor of Peter, to whom has been entrusted, in the words of the Second Vatican

Council, the “mission to provide for the common good of the universal Church and for the good of the individual churches” (Christus Dominus, 2). I am grateful to you for this, and for the practical support you give me in my ministry of service to God’s People throughout the world.

I hope and pray that your visit will indeed confirm you in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic faith. Our task, at the approach of the Third Millennium, is to live our spiritual heritage more fully and more deeply, and to communicate it whole and entire to the younger generation. May God pour out his gifts upon you and your families!

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