MAN'S ULTIMATE END IS SANCTITY AND ETERNAL LIFE

VATICAN CITY, NOV 1, 2000 (VIS) - At the end of the prayers which take
place each evening in St. Peter's Square throughout the Jubilee Year, the
Pope appeared at his study window and greeted His Beatitude Michel Sabbah,
patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins, who had led the prayer, and the
participants in the First International Mariological Forum.

The Holy Father underlined that the patriarch of Jerusalem had invited
all to pray this evening "for the dramatic situation of the population
which is so dear to him." He went on to say that "the reflections of the
participants in the Forum on the truth of the Assumption of Mary into
heaven took place several days before the 50th anniversary of the dogmatic
definition of the Assumption. " Mary," he concluded, "the first of the
redeemed, shines in front of us as a lamp which guides all of mankind ,
reminding us that the final end to which every person is called is holiness
and eternal life."
AC/JERUSALEM:MARY/SABBAH VIS 20001103 (170)