The Preparation for the Great Jubilee
Second Vatican Council
Pope John Paul II
Remote Preparation
Immediate Preparation
1997- The Year of Jesus
1998 - The Year of the Holy Spirit
1999 - the Year of the Father
1999: The Year of the Father

"To see things from the perspective of God the Father "who is in Heaven"

The Christian life is a pilgrimage to the Father’s House. This year should have led the believer to undertake a journey of authentic conversion, a conversion with two aspects:

1. negatively, from sin (through the Sacrament of Penance), and,

2. positively, by choosing good values (the ethical values in the natural law, confirmed & deepened by the Gospel).

There should be an emphasis on the virtue of charity (1 John 4:8 "God is love."). Love of God and love of neighbor is the summing up of the moral life. It has God as both its source and its goal. The Church also  reminds us that Jesus’ preached to the poor especially, and the Church herself has a preferential option for the poor.

Thus, in the Year of the Father the Church was called to a re-commitment to justice and peace. 

In light of this, and the meaning of the Jubilee, the Holy Father asked 
- for a canceling, or at least the reduction, of international debts which threaten the life of many nations
- for a renewed reflection on the challenges of our times, in the area of rights
- for the authentic promotion of marriage and family
- for meeting the challenge of secularism. This crisis of civilization must be met with the civilization of love, founded on universal values of peace, solidarity, justice and liberty, which find their full attainment in Christ
- for meeting the challenge of the great religions (through interreligious dialogue), avoiding misunderstandings, syncretism and a facile and deceptive irenicism.
- seeing Mary, the highly favored daughter of the Father as the model of love for God and neighbor, of "doing whatever Christ tells you" (Jn.  2:5).

2000: The Great Jubilee - Year of the Father

 

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