c. 1999 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ Pope John Paul II will follow a ritual combining five centuries of tradition with innovations for the millennium when he opens the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve to start Roman Catholic celebrations of the Great Jubilee Holy Year 2000.
In the most dramatic break with tradition, the pope will not strike three times on the great bronze Holy Door of the basilica with a silver and ivory hammer. Instead he will be the first pope to push the door open with his hands.
The ceremony, starting at 11 p.m. Rome time (5 p.m. EST), will be televised live to more than 50 countries and shown on giant screens to thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. The Vatican said it already has had more than 55,000 requests for seats in the basilica, which is the largest in the world but holds only 6,500 to 7,000 worshippers.
Bishop Piero Marini, master of pontifical liturgical celebrations, told a Vatican news conference Tuesday (Dec. 14) the change in ritual was intended to further enrich the”profound biblical, theological, liturgical and pastoral significance attached to the door,”which symbolizes salvation.
Marini said the gesture of opening wide the door with his own hands also is in accordance with John Paul’s apostolic letter”Tertio Millennio Adveniente”on preparations for the start of the third millennium of Christianity.”The Holy Door of the Jubilee of the Year 2000 should be symbolically wider than those of previous jubilees because humanity, upon reaching this goal, will leave behind not just a century but a millennium,”the pope wrote.
The tradition of using a hammer, started by Pope Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, when he opened the Holy Door on Christmas Eve 1499, came from the practice of walling up a wooden Holy Door with bricks on the outside of the church at the end of each Holy Year.
But Pope Pius XII replaced the basilica’s wooden door with a bronze one for Holy Year 1950, and at the end of Holy Year 1975, the wall was installed inside rather than outside the basilica.
For the next Holy Year, a special one held in 1983, workmen removed the wall in a ceremony called the”recognitio”in advance of the opening of the Holy Door. This year’s”recognitio”will be held Wednesday (Dec. 15).
Marini recalled that the practice of the pope himself hammering down part of the wall before masons took over the demolition job caused some tense moments during the papacy of elderly and ailing Paul VI.”There are still vivid memories of the sense of anxiety felt when cement fragments fell just a few inches from Pope Paul VI during the opening of the Holy Door on Christmas Eve 1974,”he said.
The Vatican has retained the tradition of placing a box of coins and two small gold bricks in the Holy Door wall. They will be removed during the”recognitio”and presented later to the pope, who does not attend the ceremony.
Another innovation for Holy Year 2000 is John Paul’s decision to also open the Holy Doors of Rome’s three other major basilicas instead of sending a cardinal to carry out the ritual. He will go to St. John in Lateran on Christmas Day, St. Mary Major on Jan. 1 and St. Paul outside-the-Walls on Jan. 18.
Pope Boniface VII formally proclaimed the first Holy Year in 1300, and Pope Martin V started the tradition of opening the Holy Door in 1423, doing it, however, at St. John in Lateran.
Alexander VI moved the papal ceremony to St. Peter’s and established the procedure, which, Marini said,”has been substantially followed in all subsequent jubilees.
This year, as in the past, the ritual will start in the atrium of St. Paul’s Basilica with the singing of psalms and prayers.”The Holy Father then silently ascends the steps and opens the door by pushing its sides with both hands,”Marini said.”From within the basilica two Sampietrini (Vatican workmen) then open the door completely.” Representatives of the church in Asia and Oceania will hang flowers on the door jamb and sprinkle perfume to the accompaniment of religious music played on Japanese instruments. Africans will blow horns.
The pope, dressed in the jubilee colors of red, blue and gold, will formally proclaim the start of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and celebrate Mass.
Italian authorities expect 26 million to 30 million pilgrims to come to Rome for Holy Year to pray and receive communion in the four major basilicas. Roman Catholic churches throughout the world will also hold special observances, which emphasize confession, communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope.
DEA END POLK
