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POPE JOHN PAUL II ON PILGRIMAGE TO THE HOLY PLACES OF SALVATION
Excerpts from Pope John Paul II’s letter of 29 June, 1999


After years of preparation, we find ourselves at the threshold of the Great Jubilee. Much has been done during these years throughout the Church to plan for this event of grace...Now, the imminence of the Jubilee prompts me to offer some thoughts connected with my own desire, God willing, to make a special Jubilee pilgrimage, to visit some of the places which are closely linked to the Incarnation of the Word of God, the event which the Holy Year of 2000 directly recalls...My meditation therefore turns to the places in which God has chosen to pitch his tent among us (Jn 1:14; cf. Ex 40:34-35; 1 Kgs 8:10-13), thus enabling man to encounter him more directly... For this reason, in the perspective of the two thousandth anniversary of the Incarnation, I have a strong desire to go personally to pray in the most important places which, from the Old to the New Testament, have seen God’s interventions, which culminate in the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ... .


I intend on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 to follow the traces of the history of salvation in the land in which it took place. The starting-point will be certain key places of the Old Testament. In this way I wish to express the Church’s awareness of her irrevocable links with the ancient people of the Covenant. For us too Abraham is our father in faith par excellence (cf. Rom 4; Gal 3:6-9; Heb 11:8-19)...The first stage of the journey which I hope to make is linked to Abraham. In fact, if it be God’s will, I would like to go to Ur of the Chaldees, the present-day Tell el-Muqayyar in southern Iraq, the city where, according to the biblical account, Abraham heard the word of the Lord which took him away from his own land, from his people, from himself in a sense, to make him the instrument of a plan of salvation which embraced the future people of the Covenant and indeed all the peoples of the world: The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ... By you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves’ (Gn 12:1-3). With these words the great journey of the People of God began. It is not only those who boast physical descent from him who look to Abraham, but also all those, and they are countless, who regard themselves as his spiritual offspring, because they share his faith and unreserved abandonment to the saving initiative of the Almighty.


The experience of the people of Abraham unfolded over hundreds of years, touching many places in the Near East. At the heart of this experience there are the events of the Exodus, when the people of Israel, after the hard trial of slavery, went forth under the leadership of Moses towards the Land of freedom. Three moments mark that journey, each of them linked to mountainous places charged with mystery. There rises first of all, in the early stage, Mount Horeb, as Sinai is sometimes called in the Bible, where Moses received the revelation of God’s name, the sign of his mystery and of his powerful saving presence: I am who I am (Ex 3:14). No less than Abraham, Moses was asked to entrust himself to God’s plan, and to put himself at the head of his people. Thus began the dramatic event of the liberation, which Israel would always remember as the founding experience of its faith.


On the journey through the desert, it was again Sinai which was the setting for the sealing of the Covenant between Yahweh and his people, thus linking the mountain to the gift of the Ten Commandments, the ten words which commit Israel to a life fully obedient to the will of God. In reality, these words are indicative of the pillars of the universal moral law written in every human heart, but they were given to Israel within the context of a mutual pact of fidelity, whereby the people undertook to love God, recalling the wonders he had done in the Exodus, and God guaranteed his enduring kindness: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery (Ex 20:2). God and the people pledged themselves to each other. If, in the vision of the burning bush, the place of the name and of the plan of God, Horeb, was above all the mountain of faith, now for the pilgrim people in the desert it became the place of encounter and of the mutual pact, in a sense therefore the mountain of love. How often down the centuries, in denouncing the faithlessness of the Covenant people, did the Prophets see it as a kind of marital infidelity, a genuine betrayal of God the bridegroom by the people, his bride (cf. Jer 2:2; Ezek 16:1-43). At the end of the Exodus journey, there rises another peak, Mount Nebo, from which Moses could see the Promised Land (cf. Dt 32:49), without the joy of setting foot there but certain in the knowledge of having reached it. His gaze from Nebo is the very symbol of hope. From that mountain he could see that God had kept his promises... .


These and other itineraries of the Old Testament are full of meaning for us, but clearly the Jubilee Year, the solemn commemoration of the Incarnation of the Word, draws us above all to the places where Jesus lived his life. First of all, I very much want to visit Nazareth, the town linked to the actual moment of the Incarnation and the place where Jesus grew in wisdom, age and grace before God and men (Lk 2:52)... And how could I not then visit Bethlehem, where Christ was born, and the shepherds and the wise men gave voice to the adoration of all humanity? At Bethlehem too there rang forth for the first time that greeting of peace which, spoken by the Angels, would continue to echo from generation to generation until our own day. Especially charged with meaning will be the visit to Jerusalem, the place of the death on the Cross and of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus... There, please God, I intend to immerse myself in prayer, bearing in my heart the whole Church. There I shall contemplate the places where Christ gave his life and took it up again in the Resurrection, imparting to us the gift of his Spirit...


To go in a spirit of prayer from one place to another, from one city to another, in the area marked especially by God’s intervention, helps us not only to live our life as a journey, but also gives us a vivid sense of a God who has gone before us and leads us on, who himself set out on man’s path, a God who does not look down on us from on high, but who became our travelling companion. The pilgrimage to the Holy Places thus becomes a highly meaningful experience and in a sense is evoked by every other Jubilee pilgrimage. The Church cannot forget her roots. Indeed, she must return to them again and again if she is to remain completely faithful to God’s plan... .


While this focus on the Holy Land expresses the Christian duty to remember, it also seeks to honour the deep bond which Christians continue to have with the Jewish people from whom Christ came according to the flesh (cf. Rom 9:5). Much ground has been covered in recent years, especially since the Second Vatican Council, in opening a fruitful dialogue with the people whom God chose as the first recipients of his promises and of the Covenant. The Jubilee must be another opportunity to deepen the sense of the bonds that unite us, helping to remove once and for all the misunderstandings which, sad to say, have so often through the centuries marked with bitterness the relationship between Christians and Jews.


Nor can we forget that the Holy Land is also dear to the followers of Islam, who look to it with special veneration. I dearly hope that my visit to the Holy Places will provide an opportunity to meet them as well, so that, without compromising clarity of witness, there may be a strengthening of the grounds for mutual understanding and esteem, as well as for cooperation in the effort to witness to the value of religious commitment and the longing for a society more attuned to God’s designs, a society which respects every human being and all creation.


In this journey through the places where God chose to pitch his tent among us, great is my desire to be welcomed as a pilgrim and brother not only by the Catholic communities, whom I shall meet with special joy, but also by the other Churches which have lived uninterruptedly in the Holy Places and have been their custodians with fidelity and love of the Lord...I trust that all our brothers and sisters in faith, in a spirit of openness to the Holy Spirit, will see in my pilgrim steps in the land travelled by Christ a doxology for the salvation which we have all received, and I would be happy if we could gather together in the places of our common origin, to bear witness to Christ of our unity (cf. Ut Unum Sint, 23) and to confirm our mutual commitment to the restoration of full communion... .



POPE JOHN PAUL II – GENERAL AUDIENCE – 28 April 1999


In the dialogue with other religions, the Church gives pride of place to the Jewish people, “our elder brothers and sisters.” This was made clear by the Second Vatican Council, and it becomes even clearer as we approach the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, with its call to reconciliation. In the past, the relationship between Jews and Christians was often marked by grave misunderstanding, although there were also moments of genuine dialogue. Certainly, there is much that Jews and Christians share together, and it is vital now that Christians should learn more of that common heritage. It is also important that Jews and Christians bear witness in the world to God’s plan for humanity, and strive to promote the justice and peace which are at the heart of that plan. With one voice, Jews and Christians must proclaim the sacredness of human life and the dignity of every man and woman. Together we look back, but only so that we can look forward to a new future of brotherhood, when the sorrows of other times will be overcome. Then Jews and Christians will be able to work together for a new civilization capable of reconciling in love the whole human family.



JOHN CARDINAL O’CONNOR – HIGH HOLY DAY MESSAGE TO THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF NORTH AMERICA – 8 September 1999


The Jewish High Holy Days come once again, reminding the world of who created it, who blesses it with life, and who judges it in his merciful justice. G-d, who gives all humanity the dignity of being made in his image, has chosen Israel as his particular people that they may be an example of faithfulness for all the nations of the earth. With sincere love and true admiration for your fidelity to the Covenant, I am happy once again to send my greetings for a blessed New Year.

This Sabbath evening, as the celebration of Rosh Hashanah commences, a new decade will begin. During the year 5760 we Christians will start a new era of the year 2000, the turn of another millennium in our history. Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has asked all Christians to enter this new millennium in the spirit of Jubilee. Part of the process of Jubilee is a call for teshuva, or repentance. Ash Wednesday, March 8, has been specially set aside as a day for Catholics to reflect upon the pain inflicted on the Jewish people by many of our members over the last millennium. We most sincerely want to start a new era.

I pray that as you begin a new decade, and as we begin another millennium in our Jewish-Christian relationship, we will refresh our encounter with a new respect and even love for one another as children of G-d. Working in our own ways, but also working together, let us both remain committed to the fulfillment of G-d’s reign. I ask this Yom Kippur that you understand my own abject sorrow for any member of the Catholic Church, high or low, including myself, who may have harmed you or your forebears in any way.


Be assured of my prayers and friendship.
L’shanah tovah tikotevu!