SPIRIT 'HOVERS OVER THE WATERS' OF OCEANIA
by Vatican Correspondent
VATICAN CITY: 12 December -- The first Synod for Oceania
winds up in Rome today, and sends out a special and simply-worded message to all
the faithful throughout Oceania. The Spirit 'hovers over the waters' of
Oceania, says the message which is attached as a simple text file (minus any
complicated formatting) to this news item. Amongst other things, the
message recognizes the great debt that the Church owes to missionaries, priests,
religous and lay, and to the 'blood of martyrs and the prayer of saints' who
have already marked this Church 'at the ends of the earth' with holiness.
Significantly, the message proclaims the 'heroic witness of other Christian
Traditions' as well.
In addition to this general message to the faithful, some
forty eight propositions have been given personally to the Pope for his
consideration, and to form the basis of his post-synodal message which is
expected to welcome in the new millenium to this part of the world where
millenial celebrations will claim, of all places on the globe, to be the first
to see the sun rising on the new millenium
