Exceptional protagonist in this succession of events has certainly been Pope John Paul II who, in spite of his age and his ill health, never ceases to amaze by the vitality of his witness to Christ and his fantastic creativity.

There have been continual surprises during this Jubilee year: from his first passing through the Holy Door, to the moving penitential celebration in St. Peter's for the "purification of memory" and a reconciliation of history in Christ; his visit to the imprisoned with the words and gestures of respect which he showed for them, even eating a meal among them and calling for greater clemency and humanity; his pilgrimage to the Holy Land with gestures of reconciliation and pardon performed at the Holy Sepulcher and at the Wailing Wall; not to mention his messages to the Religious (February 2nd), to Priests (Holy Thursday), and above all to Youth - he, the Pope of Youth, the ever young Pope who cries repeatedly to young people: "Youth is beautiful!" and calls for a Church filled with the young, a Church which is always "young".

The stone on which he builds his optimism is the "Truth of the Word" and the "Word of Truth" which is Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal Son of the Father, who became man and set up his tent among us to be for us the presence and revelation of God/Love: that God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit, communion of love and offer of salvation for the whole of humanity.

It is on this faith which John Paul lives, and he tirelessly continues to ask everyone, but above all young people, to live it and bear witness to it before the world.

"Dear young people", he declared when he presented himself to them for World Youth Day, "God is a God who loves us, who talks to us. You truly exist when you realize that He is talking to you and you have the capacity to answer Him. You, therefore, are the interlocutor, you are on 'friendly terms' with God... Your life would become absurd and meaningless if nobody spoke to you anymore, because that would show that you didn't interest them anymore... What can be said then of the Christian life a young person to whom God no longer spoke? A life in which God was only an object of study, and the Gospel only a law to be obeyed and a code of behavior to be respected?

"But no: God reveals Himself in you by speaking to you in your heart. He says that man is a very precious creature in His eyes and that He wants to invent a life to live with us...'Behold I will be with you until the end of days'".

For us Dehonians the celebration of the VI General Conference, on the theme "Economy and the Kingdom of God" was also a powerful event of conversion and grace. It was an occasion for reflecting together on the situations of extreme poverty, of marginalization, of the violence and sin in which today many people and entire populations find themselves; situations caused above all by a "free market" economy, dominated only by selfishness and the search for personal profit.

Called by vocation to be "prophets of love and servants of reconciliation" we feel these questions are directed to us. The Conference, in response, committed itself to reflecting on the theme "Economy and the Kingdom of God" so that the entire Congregation might be made increasingly sensitive to it and to identify apostolic choices which are consistent with the social dimension of the Dehonian charism.

In the month of October there was also the international meeting of the "Dehonian Family"; but such an important subject will be dealt with in the near future with the issue number 2001/1.