NEWS FEATURE: Vatican offers Internet route to Rome for holy year

c. 1999 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ The Vatican is offering pilgrims a new road to Rome for the”Great Jubilee of the Year 2000″_ the information superhighway. While emphasizing that they consider the holy year to be primarily a spiritual celebration, Vatican officials said Friday (Jan. 15) they are turning to high tech electronics […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ The Vatican is offering pilgrims a new road to Rome for the”Great Jubilee of the Year 2000″_ the information superhighway.

While emphasizing that they consider the holy year to be primarily a spiritual celebration, Vatican officials said Friday (Jan. 15) they are turning to high tech electronics to ease the way into the third millennium of Christianity for the pilgrims converging on Rome.”On this earth, there is no spirit without body and no body without spirit,”Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the jubilee committee, said, referring to the material needs of pilgrims.


Vatican officials have not yet estimated how many pilgrims they expect, but city officials are preparing for a total of more than 26 million visitors to Rome during the year 2000.”Responding to the will of the Holy Father, the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee has realized the site Jubil2000.org that will be operative from Feb. 22, 1999, the feast of the Chair of Peter,”Luca De Mata told a Vatican news conference. De Mata is in charge of the committee’s Internet Office.

De Mata said the jubilee Web site will operate immediately in Italian, French, English, Germany, Spanish, Portuguese and Polish, and the Vatican hopes to add Russian and Chinese later.

It will provide a full calendar of events, help in the”spiritual preparation”of pilgrims and offer practical information, De Mata said.

The Vatican will use its site to link national jubilee committees, bishops’ conferences and its diplomatic missions in 171 countries with key jubilee offices, including a new Central Reception Service in the historic center of Rome.

The Central Reception Service will organize hotels, restaurants, transportation, tours and entry to religious ceremonies for groups of pilgrims on package tours. A”green number,”which will operate like an 800 number, will help individuals travelers.

So far, the service has lined up 55,000 beds in hotels, 5,000 in religious institutions and 5,000 at camping sites and bed and breakfast establishments, but officials admit many more are needed. Some pilgrims may wind up staying a two-hour plane or train ride away and make day trips to Rome.

The service will distribute 10 million Pilgrim’s Cards, each with a memory chip that will confirm advance bookings and provide prepaid bus and metro rides, telephone service and insurance. Pilgrims also will be able to feed information on health problems into the card for use in emergencies.


Each pilgrim checking in with the reception service also will receive a pilgrim’s backpack containing conveniences like a portable chair and information about the jubilee.

The Vatican will rely heavily on what it believes is the largest volunteer corps ever assembled to provide assistance and information to pilgrims. Donato Mosella, the official in charge of volunteers, said 54,000 will be needed for daily operations and 51,000 for special events.

Mosella said Project Volunteerism will draft 75 percent of its corps from Italy, 20 percent from elsewhere in Europe, 3 percent from the Americas and 1.5 percent from Asia and Africa.

The Vatican is also preparing special books and magazines for pilgrims and has commissioned an official hymn for the jubilee and a special votive mass. Monsignor Crescenzio Sepe, secretary general of the central committee, said a composer”of worldwide fame”will write the musical setting for the mass.

DEA END POLK

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