VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope John Paul II pulled shut the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica on January 6, and formally ended the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, giving thanks for a year of extraordinary grace and unveiling his vision of the Church’s path in the third millennium.
The Pope said the Jubilee’s spiritual gifts will have a lasting impact only if they revitalise daily faith in action and spur the Church’s missionary outreach.
He issued a lengthy new document outlining how the main themes of the Holy Year – charity, penitence and personal encounter with Christ – could be developed in the coming years and decades.
“Today this extraordinary year officially closes, but the spiritual gifts poured out during the year remain,” the Pope said after swinging shut the ceremonial bronze door of St Peter’s.
“While today we close the Holy Door, a symbol of Christ, the heart of Jesus remains more open than ever. He continues to say to a humanity in need of hope and meaning: ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest’,” he said.
