Pope Searches Soul As Begins 21st Year Of Papacy

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul ushered in the 21st year of his pontificate Sunday, humbly asking himself in an
unprecedented public way if he had done everything possible to serve his church of one billion members.

Looking visibly emotional and relatively healthy at a mass for tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square, the 78-year-old
Pontiff also asked Catholics the world over to pray so that ``this Pope'' can carry out his mission ``to the very end.''

At the end of the long ceremony the Pope wiped his eye as children came up to greet him and the square burst into applause.

In his sermon, the Pope said he, like every bishop, should not shrink from soul-searching questions when anniversaries come
and go. They should particularly ask if they had done everything possible to confirm others in the faith.

``After 20 years of service on the throne of St Peter, today I can't avoid asking myself some questions:

'Have you done all of this?'

'Have you been a diligent and vigilant teacher of the faith of the church?'

'Have you tried to bring the people of today closer to the great work of the Second Vatican Council?'

'Have you lived up to the expectations of the believers in the church, as well as to the hunger for truth that exists in the world
outside the church?'''

The Pope provided no answers to those questions in the sermon, which took on the tone of introspection by an aging man
looking back on a life of triumphs and tragedies, successes and setbacks, health and illness, tears and joys.