Recently I was telling a group of 15 Chinese students the story of the
Prodigal son.  They were embarrassed for the youngest son who audaciously
asks his father for his share of the inheritance long before he should
have.  The father complies, but then the son blows it all.   
        "Unbelievable," said one student.  To top it off, the father welcomes the
wayward son back and throws a huge party in his honor. 
        "The father loses face in front of the entire community just to give his
son another chance.  This is very unusual," one of the scholars said.
        You can call it unusual.  The pope is calling it grace, and he's not
losing face.  Pope John Paul II has chosen the famous story of the prodigal
son as the backdrop to what the Catholic Church is calling The Year of
Jubilee.  The literal theme is  "Journeying back to the merciful father."
        The idea is that those who are active or inactive in their journey of
faith are being welcomed home.  One of my friends calls himself a member of
the world's largest denomination - "Former Catholic."  He, too, is being
welcomed back.  But what about all those years of not going to Mass?  Well,
this is a fresh day.  The Church is starting the third millennium with a
year of Jubilee, and everyone who wants to come to the party is welcome.
        This whole of year of Jubilee works both ways.  Earlier this week church
leaders took some of the onus by releasing a 90-page document by the
International Theological Commission, entitled "Memory and Reconciliation:
The Church and Errors of the Past."  In effect, the pope is saying, "We've
had lots of people blow it down through the centuries.  We're sorry.  Will
you please forgive us?"
        This Sunday, March 12, the pope acknowledges the Memory and Reconciliation
document with a "Day of Forgiveness."  The Church is asking for
forgiveness.    
        And the pope is the right one to lead the way.  In the past century this
pope suffered under communism during World War II and under terrorism when
he was hit by a would-be-assassin's bullet in 1981.  Yet he continues
preaching, "God loves you."
One of the more defining moments of the 1980s for me was the pope's
remarkable 1983 visit to his would-be-assassin in prison.  The pope spoke
gently to him and extended him forgiveness.  It is that same heart of love
and forgiveness that has led the pope on some 90 pastoral visits around the
world to preach the love and forgiveness of Christ.
        In this year of jubilee the pope is extending his arms to his Catholic
family around the world, once again welcoming them back.  Churches
throughout the Peoria Diocese, including churches in Champaign-Urbana, are
taking part in the celebration.  
        Father Stuart Swetland, director of St. John's Catholic Chapel, is
encouraging his parishioners to take part in a reconciliation weekend March
31-April 2.  In many area Catholic churches priests actually will be
answering telephones, hoping that many of those calls will come from
"former Catholics."
        "We are encouraging people to reconciliation," Father Swetland said.  And
Swetland is praying that people will come back.  Not just because he wants
to fill his chapel with thousands of people, but because he believes there
truly is reconciliation from a loving and merciful Father.  All the
prodigal son has to do is pick up the phone and say, "I want to come home."
        Catholics aren't the only ones pushing this message.  Former President
Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and former missionary Elisabeth
Elliot are leading a $10 million "Campaign for Forgiveness," established as
a nonprofit corporation to attract donations that will support forgiveness
research proposals.
        The pope knows people need to hear "You are forgiven," and they need to
say "I'm sorry."  The Pontiff is not missing the point of the prodigal son.
 When the son returned he wasn't asking his father to forget the past or to
condone the horrible sins of the past, which included wasting his
inheritance.  The son wasn't even asking to be reconciled with those whom
he had hurt.  In fact, we don't know if the prodigal son was ever
reconciled with his older brother.  
        The pope can't make anyone come back to church.  That's not what this year
of Jubilee is about.  It's merely a chance for everyone, especially that
huge denomination called "former Catholic," to step off the escalator of
past hurts and to receive the warm embrace of a loving father.

Don Follis is a University of Illinois campus minister.  His column appears
on Fridays.  Reprinted with permission from the Champaign-Urbana
News-Gazette, copyright 2000.