|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
| THURSDAY vol. 10, no. 239 December 16, 1999 |
Click on your choice of articles below
|
|
|
|
For additional news from other Catholic wire services, see HEADLINES immediately below on the left |
 WORLDWIDENEWS & VIEWS 
Pope John Paul II is expected to stray somewhat from traditional protocol in opening the Holy Door such as not using the traditional hammer. Also a light show is expected to symbolize crossing the threshold into the Light to represent the transition from sin to grace. Giant screens will be erected to accommodate the overflow crowds since St. Peter's Basilica can hold no more than 7,000 people safely. EWTN will televise the event as will a number of other channels around the world. Check your listing in your area. For more, click on Opening the Holy Door
Public Jubilee Prayer Service scheduled every evening at St. Peter's will be open to the public with Pilgrim's newspapers to be distributed in seven languages 
Not only will pilgrims to Rome during the Jubilee Year be able to keep up with all the activities through a "Pilgrim's Newspaper" that will be published in seven languages and distributed to millions at kiosks and booths, but pilgrims will be able to pray aloud in St. Peter's each evening at a designated time on days that no major Jubilee event is scheduled at St. Peter's Basilica. A representative of the Pope, usually a bishop, will give the apostolic blessing after the prayers and singing of the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. Don't be surprised if more than a few times the Holy Father shows up to pray with the pilgrims. For more, click on Praying in St. Peter's.
Just when does the Jubilee really begin? For the Church it's Christmas Eve, while other "experts" are confused. 
As expected, speculative ideas over when the Jubilee or Millennium really begins or began have surfaced as researchers review the past and how the calendar got fouled up in medieval times but it's all a mute point for the Vatican has adapted, as has the world, the Gregorian calendar established by Pope Gregory XIII who reformed the Julian Calendar, dropping ten days to bring it into alignment. Thus, people went to bed on the night of October 4th, 1582 and the next morning they discovered it was October 15th. He also set up new rules for leap years. Originally this was only followed in Catholic countries, but a century later Protestant countries followed suit and the world adopted the Gregorian Calendar. For more, click on The Jubilee is based on the Gregorian Calendar.
Vatican awaits lighting of Christmas tree Saturday with 82' tree in place in St. Peter's Square as Bethlehem prepares for Christmas  
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, especially in St. Peter's Square where a giant 82 foot tree has been erected, courtesy of the Czechoslovakian forests. Czech President Vaclav Havel will assist Pope John Paul II in officially lighting and blessing the Christmas tree that is already decorated with special hand-made ornaments. In the land where Christmas began - Bethlehem, the mayor declared his city ready for the crush of pilgrims who will flood into the quiet town to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the Savior's nativity. Over 50,000 are expected for Christmas festivities and the Palestinians are taking special security measures to assure the safety of all. For more, click on It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas .
 For additional religious and secular headlines from around the world, we refer you to our new up-to-the-minute NEWS ticker billboard by clicking on the ARROW
hoping and praying... 
"Knowledge, in the early stages, is a condition of love; but as the relationship deepens, love increases knowledge. A wife and husband who have lived together many years possess a new kind of knowledge of each other, deeper than any spoken word or any analysis of motives could provide. This knowledge (impossible in the honeymoon weeks) comes gradually from love-in-action, as a kind of intuitional understanding of what lies in the mind and heart of the other."
Dear children! Also today I call you to prayer. In this time of grace, may the cross be a sign-post of love and unity for you through which true peace comes. That is why, little children, pray especially at this time that little Jesus, the Creator of peace, may be born in your hearts. Only through prayer will you become my apostles of peace in this world without peace. That is why, pray until prayer becomes a joy for you. Thank you for having responded to my call.
|
In his column today, 
Appreciation of the Penteteuch 
The clarion sounds as a wake-up call to Catholics as we provide a review of all past articles on the Church today in our series Where is Holy Mother Church heading as we near the millennium? 
The depth of marital love 
On this date in 882 one Pope died and another was elected on the same day. That would be Pope John VIII, whose battles with the Saracens left him poorer and weaker, died on this date after a ten year pontificate and Pope Marinus I, another Roman, was elected the 108th successor of Peter. His papacy would only last two years for he would be poisoned by warring factions in the Roman families, something that would break into a major epidemic in the next decade centering around Pope Formosus. For other pertinent events throughout the centuries that are memorable in Church history today, click on 
November 25th Medjugorje Monthly Message 
