CELEBRATION OF PALM SUNDAY

VATICAN CITY, MAR 23, 1997 (VIS) - Today, Palm Sunday and the Passion of Our Lord and 12th World Youth Day, the Holy Father celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Square before tens of thousands of faithful, most of them young people.

Before beginning the celebration of the Eucharist, the Pope blessed the palms and olive branches near the square's obelisk and processed toward the sanctuary of the Vatican Basilica.

In the homily he recalled that on this day, "Jesus takes the path toward Jerusalem to confront the trial that awaits him. He is aware that he is going there for the last time, for a 'holy' week, at the end of which the Passion, the Cross and Death await him."

"For some years now, Palm Sunday has become the great world youth day," which is celebrated every year at the diocesan level and every two years at the international level.

"One could say," said the Pope, "that the first 'World Youth Day' was precisely that day in Jerusalem, when Christ entered the Holy City; each year we unite ourselves to this event. The place of the 'pueri hebraeorum' (Jewish children) has been taken by youth of different languages and races. All of them, like their predecessors in the Holy Land, wish to accompany Christ, to participate in his Week of Passion, in his 'Triduum Sacrum', in his Cross and Resurrection."
HML/PALM SUNDAY/... VIS 970324 (240)