NEWS STORY: Pope cancels post-Christmas rest as Holy Year pilgrims flock to the Vatican

c. 1999 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II canceled his customary post-Christmas rest Monday (Dec. 27) because of the crowds of pilgrims flocking to the Vatican for the start of Holy Year 2000 celebrating the third millennium of Christianity. Vatican officials estimated 1 million pilgrims, far more than originally expected, would […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II canceled his customary post-Christmas rest Monday (Dec. 27) because of the crowds of pilgrims flocking to the Vatican for the start of Holy Year 2000 celebrating the third millennium of Christianity.

Vatican officials estimated 1 million pilgrims, far more than originally expected, would visit St. Peter’s Basilica between Christmas and New Year’s eves. Rome officials have predicted a total of up to 26 million over the entire year.


During an arduous three-day holiday weekend, the Roman Catholic pontiff opened two Holy Doors, celebrated Christmas Eve mass and Christmas evening Vespers, delivered his traditional”urbi et orbi”(city and world) Christmas message to the city of Rome and the world and led Sunday prayers from his study window.

John Paul prayed for peace and respect for human rights, the rights of the traditional family and the right to life. He called for a ban on”the senseless use of arms”and for dialogue to end the fighting in Chechnya and restore stability to the Ivory Coast.

This was only the beginning of a year crowded with jubilee events at the Vatican and travel to the Holy Land, which will tax the strength of the 79-year-old pope, who suffers from a neurological disease that affects his movements and speech.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said because of the large number of pilgrims arriving for the first days of Holy Year, John Paul II decided to forego his usual post-Christmas rest at Castelgandolfo in the Alban Hills south of Rome.

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, the pope will inaugurate the year 2000 by delivering a second, special”urbi et orbi”message from his study window to tens of thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square and a worldwide radio and television audience expected to be in the hundreds of millions.

John Paul signaled the start of Holy Year in solemn ceremony in which he opened the tall bronze Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. Dressed in a glittering cape embroidered in the jubilee colors of gold, red and sky blue, he pushed the double door open with his hands and then kneeled on the threshold in silent prayer.

Popes traditionally open the door by rapping on it with a silver hammer and waiting for workmen to remove a brick wall, which closes off the door between Holy Year celebrations normally held every 25 years.


Navarro-Valls said John Paul did not use the hammer because this year the wall was removed in advance, apparently to make it easier for him to enter the church.

Navarro-Valls said 56,000 people watched the ceremony inside the basilica and in the square where the Vatican set up 40,000 chairs and four giant television screens. Millions saw it on live television in 51 countries on all five continents.

As John Paul entered the basilica and walked slowly up the main aisle, leaning on his silver staff, Japanese musicians played ceremonial koto drums and three African musicians blew on long curving horns.

In his homily, the pope said the Holy Door stands for Christ and the possibility of salvation he offers humanity.”You, O Christ, son of the living God, be for us the door,”the pope said.”Be for us the true door, symbolized by the door which on this night we have solemnly opened.” After Christmas morning Mass in the basilica, the pope climbed to the main balcony on the newly restored facade of St. Peter’s to deliver a somber”urbi et orbi”message and wish the world a happy Christmas in 59 languages.”Humanity has sometimes sought the truth elsewhere, invented false certainties and chased after deceptive ideologies. At times people have refused to respect and love their brothers and sisters of a different race or faith; they have denied fundamental rights to individuals and nations,”he said.”At times this world neither respects or loves life.” John Paul drove across the river on Christmas evening to open the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. John in Lateran. In another break with tradition, he is opening the Holy Doors of all three major basilicas in Rome, St. Mary Major on New Year’s Day and St. Paul’s-Outside-the Walls on Jan. 18, the start of the Week of Prayers for Christian Unity.

In his homily during vespers in St. John in Lateran, the pope recalled that Pope Boniface VIII inaugurated history’s first Holy Year there in the 1300s, and Pope Martin V began the custom of opening a Holy Door there in 1423.

On Sunday, leading the Angelus prayers from his study window, John Paul warned that the traditional family, made up of a man and woman who marry and”welcome the gift of children,”is under attack from groups who try to”make pass for a right what in reality is the fruit of an individualistic and subjectivist mentality.” He also prayed for”sincere and persevering dialogue”to bring peace to Chechnya and normalcy in the Ivory Coast.


DEA END POLK

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