4
The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
"2
-- Taking the time to make a difference
Making a difference after Christmas
The four of us sat in a row,
waiting in front of the window, at
the airport. It was late at night,
cold, and we were waiting.
We were four parents -- my
wife and I, another woman, anoth-
er man. Our children were coming
home for Christmas, and we were
waiting.
The man said his son worked
in Minneapolis, at a new job. He
was proud of his son's college suc-
cesses and eager to tell us how a
company had sought out his son to
offer him the position he now held.
The woman said her son had
been doing extremely well in college, too, and was
working on earning two undergraduate degrees.
We all bragged a little, as we waited.
The four of us sat in a row, facing the window,
and as we turned to talk to each other, each of us
would pause to peer out the window. We looked for
lights. We watched a pickup truck on the airport
apron. We watched the people who worked at the
airport, hoping to find some increase in activity
that would signal an arrival.
A voice on the public address system reported
some news. A flight number was given, an arrival
time promised, for a plane from Cincinnati. The
level of conversation picked up in other sections of
By PAUL
R. LEINGANG
EDITOR
the waiting area, among family
members and friends of passengers
expected on that flight.
The four of us -- who had
stopped talking in mid-sentence
when the announcement began --
settled back again in our chairs and
tried to remember where our con-
versation had taken us.
We stiffened again as another
announcement began. The com-
muter flight from Chicago, which
should have landed already, was
just about ready to leave the termi-
nal at Chicago, we were told.
Disappointed at the delay, but
comforted by the assurance that the flight was actu-
ally going to take place, we settled back in our seats
again.
Another flight was announced, this one from
St. Louis. It brought home the son from Minneapo-
lis, for the father who was waiting. Three of us
remained, seated together in the chairs by the win-
dow, waiting for the last flight from Chicago, for
two sons, hers and ours, coming home for Christ-
mas.
Midnight arrived, and a little later, the good
news was announced. Our plane -- it had become
ours, some time during the course of the evening --
was 10 minutes away.
We stood up, to wait more actively,
joining others who had been waiting,
separate groups of threes and fours.
The plane touched down, and
were waiting gathered together near the e
area. After hours of waiting, we
moment together, with smiles and
ing, as the group of us moved in
the stream of passengers arriving.
As suddenly as our celebration
begun, so suddenly was it concluded, as 0
family by family, reunions were
who had waited and those who had
I can't help but think th
pened at the birth of Jesus. Years
with the arrival of the incarnate Son
cannot stay together, no more than our
families would remain at the airport.
In the days after Christmas, it is up
back in our own homes and nei
out the reality of that long-awaited
After an extraordinary moment
it is up to each of us to continue the
our ordinary lives, until we gather again
eternal celebration of unity.
Vatican Letter
Comments about this column are
prleing@cfm.org or the Christian Family
P.O. Box 272, Ames, Iowa 50010.
Looking back centuries to find the church's 'holy year' t
By JOHN THAVIS
Catholic News Service
VATICAN cITY (CNS) --
When Pope John Paul II
announced the Great Jubilee of
the Year 2000, he was extending
a church tradition that began
seven centuries ago.
But while every medieval
scholar knows that Pope Boni-
face VIII proclaimed the first
Holy Year in 1300, the reasons
for his unprecedented decision
are still much debated.
Historians see a mix of spiri-
tual, political and financial
motives in the first Holy Year,
reflecting the more worldly role
The MESSAGE
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i
of the pope at that time. And that I escaped the same danger whole 100 years for the next.
ever since then, jubilees have
enthused Romans because they
inevitably brought people,
power and money to the Eternal
City.
Perhaps that's one reason
why Pope John Paul and his
jubilee planning team have gone
out of their way to emphasize
prayer over profits for the year
2000.
"The spiritual preparation for
the jubilee is the essential thing.
It's not a business opportunity,"
Archbishop Sergio Sebastiani,
the Vatican's chief coordinator
for the event, has commented.
Some experts say the practice
of .holy years, now celebrated
every 25 years, began as a snap
decision after tens of thousands
of pilgrims spontaneously flood-
ed Rome around Christmas of
1299.
As that century drew to a
close, a run'or spread that a ple-
nary indulgence -- remission of
temporal punishment for sins
was available to those who came
to Rome during the centennial
anniversary of Jesus' birth.
When Pope Boniface saw the
crowds, he was "amazed,"
according to a recent Vatican
historical encyclopedia. In order
not to disappoint the faithful, he
quickly put together a papal
bull, or decree, and on Feb. 22,
1300, declared that holy years
would thereupon be held every
100 years.
He stipulated that a plenary
indulgence would be gained by
those who prayed repeatedly at
the basilicas of St. Peter and St.
Paul -- 15 times for outside vis-
itors, 30 times for Romans, just
to make things fair.
Contemporaries estimated
that 2 million people poured
through Rome's narrow streets
that year. Historian Christopher
Hibbert quotes one visitor as
saying, "I frequently saw both
sexes trodden underfoot, and it
was sometimes with difficulty
myself."
They lined up outside church-
es to visit shrines and relics: the
heads of Saints Peter and Paul,
the veil of Veronica, pieces of the
true cross, the Holy Stairs.
There was no Trevi Fountain to
throw coins into; instead, pil-
grims back then would toss
money onto the altar of St.
Paul's Outside the Walls, where
two priests were stationed with
rakes to gather the offerings.
Experts say the profits visit-
ed upo n Rome that year were
incalculable. Much of it went to
souvenir and relic vendors, to
innkeepers and traders, to
craftsmen engaged in refurbish-
ing projects and to artists
brought in by churches for
redecoration. St. Peter's Basilica
and several other major church-
es got a facelift, and new monu-
ments were built.
But it wasn't just about rev-
enues. It was also about pres-
tige.
"The jubilee of 1300 was the
basis for the resurrection of
Rome" in its role as center of the
universal church, Italian histo-
rian Franco Cardini said recent-
ly.
In effect, he said, it shifted the
focus from Jerusalem to Rome
which was not a bad thing for
the church after the failure of
the crusades the preceding cen-
tury. He noted that popes had
offered a plenary indulgence to
those participating in a crusade
to Jerusalem, but were now
offering the same thing in Rome.
"Christians discovered that
the goal was no longer the liber-
ation of Jerusalem, but an inte-
rior liberation gained by making
pilgrimage -- not to the empty
tomb of Jesus but to the tomb of
Peter, where the center of Chris-
tianity was situated," he said.
After the immensely popular
Holy Year of 1300, it wasn't too
surprising that succeeding
popes didn't want to wait a
Saying life was short, Pope
Clement VI proclaimed another
jubilee for 1350, but this one
was a disaster.
The churches and other build-
ings so proudly restored in 1300
were already falling into ruin,
as the Rome economy was weak-
ened by political fighting, dis-
ease and natural disaster. St.
Paul's had collapsed in an earth-
quake, and St. Peter's was with-
out a roof. As for the pope, he
chose to remain in Avignon,
France, for the duration; no
papal blessings were issued in
Rome.
Still, the pilgrims came by the
tens of thousands. But because
of rampant lawlessness, they
had to go everywhere in large
groups.
Pope John paul i
a lot about the
Years, but
not said much
of the 1300s,
evoked the Old
dition of the
time of rest, fo:
renewal, and he
sized Jerusalem as
grimage.
Nowadays,
have to leave
to gain a pler
during a
obse
Vatican will
draw in
ties are
lion people
to the city.
Even for the
rest may be
Subscription Renewal Drive
to begin with 'Message sund=
"Message Sunday" -- observed this year on Jar1.
is the beginning of a drive for new and reneweCl
Most of the subscriptions to the Message
February, and most new subscriptions will began
day of March.
Subscription fees remain the same, $17.50 for
subscriber, or $15 for subscribers in full
Each paying subscriber receives 45 regular
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The Message is published every Friday
the Friday after Christmas.
Bishop's
The following activities and events are
ule of Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger:
op's house, Saturday, Jan, 4,
Confirmation, Holy Spirit
Tuesday. Jan, 7, 7 p.m. CST.
Priests' Personnel Board Meeting,
Wednesday, Jan. 8, 1:30 p.m.
