The particular Jubilees punctuated each week of the year 2000. There were special
Vespers services held every day at St. Peter's Basilica, often with participation by the Pope. Nearly every Sunday was dedicated to a special celebration of some sector of society. (See list at the end of this article.) Some events of the Jubilee year were seen to be particularly significant, however.
Opening kneels on the threshold of the
holy door of
St. Peter's Basilica. 24 December 1999 The pope opened the Jubilee by opening the
holy door of St. Peter's Basilica shortly before the
Midnight Mass on 24 December 1999. Most of the time, the holy doors of the patriarchal
Basilicas are cemented shut. On the occasion of a Jubilee year, the pope opens the doors as a symbol of opening the doors of grace. Pilgrims visiting the basilicas to gain the Jubilee indulgence enter the basilicas through these special doors. Throughout most of the Jubilee year, long lines were queued up to enter the door. Pope John Paul II simplified the rite of opening considerably, compared to previous Jubilees. (See
Holy door.) After a series of prayers and hymns, punctuated by
African
elephant tusks being blown, the Pope, clad in a purple
cope, pushed on the doors as they were drawn open from inside by assistants. He then fell to his knees on the threshold of the Basilica and prayed, holding his silver
Papal ferula. Pope John Paul II commissioned
Patsy Ford Simms to compose the music for this celebration. The holy door in
St. John Lateran was opened by the pope the following day, and that of
St. Mary Major on 1 January 2000.
Ecumenical celebration at St. Paul's The fourth holy door, that of St. Paul Outside the Walls, was not opened until 18 January 2000, to launch the week of prayer for Christian Unity. For that celebration, the Pope had planned an ecumenical service, inviting leaders of all Christian religions to take part. Twenty-two Christian leaders accepted the invitation, along with a representative of the
World Council of Churches, which represents 337 denominations. The opening of the door was carried out simultaneously by the Pope, Metropolitan Athanasias, representing the
Ecumenical Patriarch, and
George Carey,
Archbishop of Canterbury. All three fell to their knees on the threshold of the Basilica, joined in prayer. The liturgy of the day included readings from the
Bible, from the
Lutheran martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer and from the
Russian theologian
Georges Florovsky.
Prayer for forgiveness for sins of the Church One particularly rich ceremony of the Jubilee, dubbed the "Day of Forgiveness", came on 12 March 2000, the first Sunday of
Lent. There the Pope begged forgiveness from God for the sins committed by members of the Church, and particularly sins committed in the name of the Church. Seven senior
curial officials read special prayers asking for forgiveness in specific areas. The first, Benin's Cardinal
Bernardin Gantin, then dean of the
College of Cardinals, made a general confession of Christians' sins in the course of history.
Joseph Ratzinger, cardinal prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, called for confession of faults for the use of "non-evangelical methods" in the service of faith, as for example, in the
Inquisition.
Roger Etchegaray, cardinal president of the Central Committee for the Jubilee, exhorted the confession of sins that caused division among Christians; Cardinal
Edward Idris Cassidy, president of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, acknowledged the faults committed "against the people of the Covenant," the
Jews; and
Japanese Archbishop
Stephen Fumio Hamao, president of the
Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, mentioned sins committed against love, peace, the rights of peoples, respect of cultures and religions.
Nigerian Cardinal
Francis Arinze, president of the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, requested confession of sins that have wounded the dignity of woman and the unity of mankind. Finally,
Vietnamese Archbishop
François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân, president of the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, encouraged confession of sins in the area of fundamental rights of the human person: abuses against children, marginalisation of the poor, suppression of the unborn in the maternal womb or their use for experimentation. This
mea culpa of the Church was widely applauded, but some members of the Catholic Church felt that it had gone too far, and had damaged the doctrine that the Church is holy. For his part, at the prayer of the
Angelus later in the day, the Pope indicated that such a ceremony was necessary. "The Holy Year is a time of purification: the Church is Holy because Christ is her Head and Spouse, the Spirit is her vivifying soul, and the Blessed Virgin and the saints are her most authentic expression. However, the children of the Church know the reality of sin, whose shadows are reflected in her, darkening her beauty. Because of this, the Church does not cease to implore God's forgiveness for the sins of her members."
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Only a few days later, from 21 March to 26 March, the Pope realized a long-held dream by completing a personal
pilgrimage to the
Holy Land. He visited
Jordan,
Israel and lands held by the
Palestinian National Authority. Two particular high points of that visit were his prayer at the
Western Wall, where he placed a copy of the prayer for forgiveness for sins against the Jews into a crack in the wall, and his celebration of the
Mass in the
Cenacle in Jerusalem. The
Cenacle had been closed to
Pope Paul VI when he visited Jerusalem in 1964, because the same site is venerated in Judaism as the burial site of
King David. Pope John Paul II was permitted to celebrate in this most holy location of Christianity, where he preached on the words spoken by the faithful after the consecration: "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again". After the visit, the
Israeli government arranged for the possession of the cenacle to be transferred to the Catholic Church in exchange for
Santa María Blanca, a
synagogue in
Toledo, Spain that had been converted into a church. presides at the
Vespers service during
World Youth Day, 2000.
World Youth Day World Youth Day 2000 was an extremely well-attended event. An estimated two million youths took place in the closing Mass. The Roman subways were filled with singing youths from all over the world. The area around the
Circus Maximus was converted into a large area for the hearing of confession. There were always long lines at these confessionals, and most priests in Rome spent several hours here. The event culminated with the Mass on 20 August 2000 in a large field belonging to the Roman
university Tor Vergata.
Closing The Great Jubilee was closed on 6 January 2001 with the Mass of
Epiphany. On the previous night, the Basilica of St. Peter was scheduled to close at 6:00 p.m. but the church remained open until the last pilgrim had passed through the Holy Doors at about 2:20 a.m. on 6 January. After solemnly closing the Holy Door, the Pope celebrated Mass in front of the basilica for a congregation of some 10,000 persons. On this occasion, the Pope signed his Apostolic Letter
Novo Millennio Ineunte (
At the beginning of the new millennium) which outlines the priorities of the Church for the 21st century and beyond. == The Jubilee beyond the Catholic Church ==