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Fulfilling dream, pope opens Great Jubilee of the Year 2000

December 24, 1999
By John Thavis Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Fulfilling his dream to lead the church into Christianity's third millennium, Pope John Paul II opened the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica and launched the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. The Christmas Eve ceremony highlighted the joy of Christ's coming and the universality of the modern church. An updated rite featured Asian string music and the flowers and fragrances of Oceania, along with traditional Latin invocations. The Mass marked the start of the busiest Christmas ever for the pope, who also delivered a blessing ``urbi et orbi'' (to the city of Rome and the world) Dec. 25 and presided over a prayer service and Holy Door opening at Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran. For the 79-year-old pontiff, unsteady on his feet but as firm as ever in his resolve, the few steps through the Holy Door at St. Peter's symbolized an invitation for all to enter through the door of conversion. The door was last opened for the Holy Year that ended in 1984. ``With joy we open the year of the great jubilee ... a year of grace and true freedom, of reconciliation and peace,'' the pope said. The church's main jubilee message, the pope said, was that Christ himself is ``the door of mercy and grace, always open to sinners, a door that offers salvation to all those entering.'' The pope needed to be supported on both arms as he ascended the three steps to the Holy Door, and at one point he began to fall backward before being steadied by an aide. ``Open for me the doors of justice,'' he intoned before pushing on the bronze doors. A few moments later, they were pulled open from inside and the pontiff, again supported by assistants, knelt in prayer on the threshold. The pope then withdrew to watch a procession of lay faithful anoint the door with oils and fragrances, and decorate it with flowers. He returned to the threshold with the Gospel book in his hands and, after holding it up for all to see, entered the door with labored steps. Three Nigerian laymen wearing feathered headdresses blew on elephant-tusk horns, and the whole basilica echoed with low notes of joy. Outside, watching on giant TV screens, some 60,000 pilgrims from all over the world filled most of St. Peter's Square, and the ceremony included live satellite links with churches in Bethlehem, Havana, Washington, Dublin and Soweto, South Africa. The three-hour service was broadcast worldwide. ``It was important for us to see the pope celebrate the last Mass of the millennium here in Rome,'' said Rico Jaranilla, a U.S. Catholic who sat with his family in the chilly square for four hours before the start of midnight Mass. After opening the Holy Door, the pope walked up and down the main aisle to the altar without apparent difficulty, stopping at times to bless babies in the crowd. In his sermon, he explained how the birth of Christ had truly ``changed the course of human events,'' through an act of redemption and triumph over death. ``This is the truth which on this night the church wants to pass on to the third millennium. And may all of you who will come after us accept this truth, which has totally changed history,'' he said. Like the first shepherds who knelt in adoration of Jesus, he said, modern Christians feel amazement and joy 2,000 years afterward, knowing that through this unique event they were given a share in eternal life. On Christmas Day, delivering his ``urbi et orbi'' blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, the pope offered Christmas greetings in 58 languages and prayed that the new millennium would bring an end to the ``senseless use of arms, and the recourse to violence and hatred which have doomed individuals, peoples and continents.'' He invited people to make a spiritual pilgrimage to the resting places of the ``victims of brutal conflicts and cruel slaughters.'' Christ came to bring the Gospel of life, he said, yet recent history shows that men and women have not always welcomed human life as a precious gift. In remarks that appeared aimed at the many non-Christians in his television audience, the pope explained in simple terms why Christmas is so holy to Christians: It is a moment when ``we recognize the unmistakable stamp of the one who is holy, full of mercy and goodness,'' he said. Later in the day, the pope opened the Holy Door at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, where Pope Boniface VIII declared the first Holy Year in 1300. Following a procession of more than 100 monks, priests, bishops and cardinals, the pope wavered momentarily as he approached the wooden door, its frame garlanded with yellow and white flowers. At the crucial moment, he pushed three times on the Holy Door before two deacons pulled it open from behind. Then he prayed in silence on the threshold before stepping inside and processing up the basilica's central aisle for an evening prayer service. In his homily, the pope recalled that Pope Martin V had opened a Holy Door for the first time at St. John Lateran during the 1423 jubilee. ``Here is the heart of that special dimension of the history of salvation, tied to the grace of jubilees, and the historical memory of the church of Rome,'' he said. Some 20,000 people attended the service, 5,000 inside the basilica and 15,000 in the piazza outside. At an Angelus blessing Dec. 26, the pope made a jubilee-year appeal for ``the rights of the family, of life and of childhood.'' In particular, he spoke about respect for life from the moment of conception and the importance of marital and family unity -- all of which he said were threatened by an ``individualistic'' mentality in contemporary culture. The pope also offered prayers for the many people suffering from civil strife and discord in the world, from Chechnya in southern Russia to the Ivory Coast in western Africa. He urged all sides in such conflicts to have the courage to undertake genuine dialogue.