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
