Pope Speaks to Young at Palm Sunday Mass...04/17/00
By Laura King - Associated Press  

VATICAN CITY  - Pope John Paul II, addressing throngs of faithful celebrating Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square, urged young people to renew their commitment to the Roman Catholic church.

Held under brilliantly sunny skies, the pageantry-filled open-air Mass marked the start of a week of commemorations leading up to Easter, when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

Palm Sunday marks Jesus' entry into Jerusalem before his arrest and crucifixion, when followers strewed palm branches in his path. Echoing that, ranks of red-robed cardinals bearing palm branches led a procession into the enormous square, which was bedecked with silvery leafed olive trees and banks of red flowers.

The crowd of about 500,000 people spilled out of the square and into the street. Visitors - pilgrims and tourists alike - had come from all over the world.

"I wouldn't want to miss seeing this," said Allard Mako, 35, a seminarian from Johannesburg, as he waited to pass through the security gates and metal detectors set up between the soaring columns surrounding the square.

"It's a very, very special time for us," said 20-year-old Francisco Dias of Lisbon, Portugal, dressed in his best and seated with his family.

Tourists excitedly snapped pictures of one another, of the Swiss Guards in their red-plumed headdresses and pantaloons, and of the pope as he drove through the crowd in his open-air "popemobile."

The pontiff, who turns 80 next month, at times looked tired during the nearly three-hour Mass, leaning on his silver staff. His hands trembled, a symptom of Parkinson's disease.

But he appeared energized as he looked ahead to what is expected to be an enormous youth celebration in Rome in August, his voice strong as he told the crowd that Palm Sunday has become a "festival of youth."

Young people, he said, are drawn to the church by a spiritual yearning that only faith can satisfy.

"This is answer to the questions and unrest of every man and every woman, and particularly, the young," he said. The Christian promise of salvation, he went on, "is not an illusory promise of happiness; on the contrary, with it you can achieve an authentic human and spiritual maturity."

Later in the week, the pope was to preside over a Holy Thursday service, a Good Friday evening procession in Rome's Colosseum, a vigil service Saturday night and an Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square next Sunday.