In opening the Holy Door on Christmas Eve last year at St. Peter's His Holiness John Paul II laid out a blueprint for holiness for all to follow. Three-hundred and seventy-eight days and thirty million pilgrims later there is proof in the pudding! It was a successful Jubilee Year that exceeded all expectations and the fruits will only be known fully in Heaven.

    In our editorial this week, we look back with awe and gratitude for this joyous and historic Jubilee Year that has reminded us daily of our roots and the precious gift of our Faith and the great leadership Holy Mother Church has been blessed with in Pope John Paul II. It was over a year ago that the secular media and many liberals within the Church were saying the Pope was too frail and too old to continue, that the Church needed a younger, more active Pontiff. Indeed, even in the face of tremendous contradiction, they continue this diatribe of dissing. When will they learn? We would say, after some 30 million pilgrims later, that they are once again exposed for the modernists they are for the Holy Father has exceeded all expectations in maintaining an itinerary that would exhaust a healthy young man, let alone a holy saint who turned 80 this past May. With every Jubilee celebration week in and week out, the world could see that in John Paul the Great we have a modern giant among all men, the one man who can be trusted globally, and the one man we must follow and heed for he is the Vicar of Christ who Christ sent to us for these trying times. All Jesus has asked His children to do is to try and He will do the rest. And, like Christ in so many ways, our beloved Supreme Pontiff has demonstrated the virtues of being the Servant of the servants. Now all we have to do is emulate his example, cross the threshold of Hope as the Holy Father encourages, and we will realize the fruits of this landmark Jubilee Year and experience our epiphany. For our commentary, A true epiphany of enlightenment! see CATHOLIC PewPOINT