START OF INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON WOMEN

VATICAN CITY, DEC 6, 1996 (VIS) - This morning in Rome the three-day international meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity on the theme "A Renewed Commitment for All for the Good of Women Throughout the World," in which 130 persons from around the world are participating started.

"Inspired by the concern expressed by Pope John Paul II on occasion of the United Nations Conference in Beijing," says the communique released today, "the Pontifical Council for the Laity wishes, through this initiative, to become part of that continuity of commitment - proper to the Church - for women, for all of mankind."

"Pope John Paul's Encyclical 'Mulieris Dignitatem' and his 'Letter to Women' will be the backdrops to the meeting. ... The realization of the dignity of the human person and the utilization of the 'feminine genius', in every context, will be the key ideas which will animate the research and the debate, both on an anthropological and theological level and a socio-cultural one."
.../WOMAN/CON-L VIS 961206 (170)