CONCLUSION

60. The Church is preparing for the new millennium through a process of spiritual conversion that has its central inspiration in the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. This exceptional ecclesial event should prompt all Christians to make a serious examination of conscience on their witness in the present and also to a fuller awareness of the sins of the past, "recalling those times in history when [Christians] ... indulged in ways of thinking and acting which were truly forms of counter-witness and scandal."(⁵³)

In treating the subject of an equitable redistribution of land, central to the jubilee tradition in the Bible, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace wants to focus the attention of all on one of the most squalid and painful spectacles — that of the shared responsibility, including that of many Christians, for grave forms of injustice and exclusion, and the acquiescence of too many of them in the violation of fundamental human rights.(⁵⁴)

61. In many contexts, acquiescence in evil, which is a troubling sign of spiritual and moral degeneration not for Christians alone, is producing a disturbing cultural and political void which makes people incapable of change and renewal. While social relations are not changing, and justice and solidarity remain absent and invisible, the doors of the future are closing, and the destiny of many peoples remain locked into an increasingly uncertain and precarious present.

The spirit of the Jubilee urges us to cry "Enough!" to the many individual and collective sins that bring about intolerable situations of dire poverty and injustice. By calling attention to the special and essential significance of justice in the biblical message — that of protection of the weak and of their right, as children of God, to the wealth of creation — we strongly hope that, as in the biblical experience, the jubilee year will help us today to restore social justice through a distribution of land ownership carried out in a spirit of solidarity in social relations.

62. The light of Christ — image of the invisible God whose fatherly heart urges him to go in search of all persons, his cherished possession — gives us strength and throws light on our difficult path.(⁵⁵)

A deeper understanding and reasoned application of the guidelines of the Church will be of practical help to all humanity in creating the conditions for rejoicing in the salvation to which they are called by God's grace, and in addressing a great prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God.

Let us invoke the intercession of Mary, Mother of our Redeemer, and the Star who is a sure guide for the steps of all Christians who abandon the erroneous paths of evil and obey the promptings of the Spirit, who is leading them toward the Lord, so that they can share in the intimate life of God and be able to call him "Abba! Father!" (Gal 4:6).

Rome, 23rd November 1997
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King

Roger Card. Etchegaray
President Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

Most Rev. François-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan
Vice-President Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

Diarmuid Martin
Secretary Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace