Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross
DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH NEWSPAPER
Vol. 56 No. 1 Thursday, January 2,1975 Single Copy Price — 15 Cents
Pope Officially Opens Church’s Holy Year
KNEELING IN PRAYER - Kneeling prayerfully at
the edge of the Holy Door Pope Paul takes part in a
Christmas Eve ceremony in which the 1975 Holy Year
is inaugurated officially. The pope and other Church
officials passed through the door in procession later in
the ceremony which was telecast around the world.
(NC Photo)
BY JOHN MUTHIG
VATICAN CITY (NC) - With the
words “Open to me the doors of
justice,” and with three raps of a
hammer against the Holy Door, Pope
Paul VI opened the Universal Church’s
Holy Year in a Christmas Eve ceremony
at St. Peter’s Basilica.
As millions throughout the world
watched on television, the Pope entered
the basilica through the Holy Door at
11:52 p.m. He was followed by about
25 cardinals, more than 40 bishops, and
members of the diplomatic corps
accredited to the Holy See.
The simple Latin ceremony of
opening the Holy Door, sealed since the
1950 Holy Year, was introduced within
the Midnight Mass for Christmas. The
Pope began the penitential rite of the
Mass from a throne set up near the
sealed door in the great atrium or
colonnaded porch of the basilica.
Following the sung Kyrie Eleison, the
Pope prayed: “Open to us completely
the door of your mercy so that one day
the doors of your dwelling place in
Heaven will open for us.”
After a hymn to the Holy Spirit sung
by the all-male choir, the Pope took a
specially-made silver hammer, struck the
metal cross fastened at the door’s
center, and sang: “Open to me the
doors of justice.” The choir responded:
“I want to go in and give thanks to
God.”
The Pope, giving the door a second
symbolic rap, sang: “This is the door of
ttie Lord.” The singers answered:
“Through it will enter the just.”
With the third blow of the hammer
the Pope intoned: “I shall enter your
house, Lord.” The choir sang: “I shall
prostrate in adoration in your holy
temple.”
Then, with a squeak and a puff of
dust, the door of brick and mortar
sealing the entrance was lowered
backwards into the interior of the
basilica by pulleys. The Pope pulled
back as if startled or even struck by
falling bits of plaster, and then returned
to the throne on the porch. Laymen and
Franciscan priests in purple stoles
cleaned away debris, and washed the
portal and threshold with holy water,
applied with large sponges and wiped
away with white cloths.
The Pope then knelt for about a
minute at the newly opened entrance to
the basilica. Accompanied by an
assistant, he crossed the threshold. Once
inside the basilica proper, he walked
over a section of the floor inlaid with
his own coat of arms, marking
restoration work done in 1966 on an
adjacent chapel where Michelangelo’s
Pieta is enshrined.
The Pope, who walked very slowly
throughout the ceremony and seemed
tired, continued the Mass from the
central altar of St. Peter’s once the
processions of civil and Church
dignitaries had passed through the door
and reached their seats in the Church.
‘March for Life’ Scheduled
On January 22, 1975, the second
annual March for Life will take place at
the United States Capitol in
Washington. Its purpose is to petition
the Congress for passage of a mandatory
Human Life Amendment.
The 1975 March for Life is expected
to draw upwards of 50,000 marchers.
Most will be wearing a red rose,
symbolic of Life. The program will
begin at 1:00 p.m. on the West Front of
the Capitol building, and will feature
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INSIDE STORY
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'Know Your Faith’
Pg. 5
Papal Document
Pg. 6
Entertainment
Pg. 7
Family Life Statement
Pg. 8
pro-life Representatives, Senators and
other prominent persons. Invitations to
attend have been extended to members
of the Georgia Congressional delegation.
The actual march around the Capitol
building will begin at 3:00 p.m. Last
year,, even though the marchers walked
eight- and ten-abreast, by the time those
in the lead returned to the West Front,
it was another twenty minutes before
the last marchers could be on their way.
Jay Bowman, Ga. Chairman, said he
will be in Washington January 21st
through 23rd to meet with members of
the Georgia delegation. “Due to the
long distance involved,” he said, “we
have not attempted to organize a group
to travel to Washington. However, we
certainly would be grateful for any
individuals who could make the trip and
meet with our elected officials.” He
asked that anyone interested in
participating contact him directly at
P.O. Box 49211, Atlanta, Georgia
30329, or call (404) 939-6239. Rose
orders should go directly to the Rose
Committee in Washington.
Among American prelates
participating in the ceremony were
Cardinal John Wright, prefect of the
Congregation for the Clergy; Bishop
Paul Marcinkus, president of the
Vatican bank; Bishop Ernest Primeau,
former bishop of Manchester, N.H., and
director of the Roman residence for
U.S. bishops and for U.S. diocese priests
working for the Vatican; Bishop Joseph
McShea of Allentown, Pa., and Bishop
Robert Tracy, retired bishop of Baton
Rouge, La.
The Pope addressed the invitation
first to the world’s Catholics, but then
added that the invitation “spreads
wherever the name of Christ defines a
brotherhood and proclaims its happy
fullness: Come!”
He described his invitation as
“ecumenical.”
His invitation was also extended to
those “who have solidarity with us, in
Abraham, in our faith and are still the
sons of his promise.”
He also called on those “who are
wandering, solitary and disheartened”
and even “those who have rejected
religions: Come!”
HOLY DOOR LOWERED - Workmen (background) lower the Holy
Door with pulleys Christmas Eve after Pope Paul VI (foreground) tapped
on the door with a silver hammer, opening it for the first time in 25 years
to inaugurate the 1975 Holy Year. (NC Photo)
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HEADLINE
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NCC on Mideast
NEW YORK (NC) - The executive committee of the National Council of Churches
(NCC) has passed a resolution affirming “the right of Israel to exist as a free nation
within secure borders” and “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination
and a national entity.” Thy central policy-making committee of the NCC called upon
Israel and the Palestinians “to recognize mutually the right of the other party to the
same self-determination which each desires for itself,” and urged the United States and
the Soviet Union “to serve as partners on the path of peace, maintaining a posture
from which they can carry on meaningful dialogue with Israel and the Arab states.”
Troops Kill Farmers
SAN VICENTE, El Salvador (NC) - Bishop Arnoldo Aparicio of San Vicente has
protested to the government against the killing of six farmers by government troops in
a rent dispute and has submitted evidence against a government claim that the farmers
had ambushed the troops. He also protested against the arrest without warrant of 25
other farmers in the same rent dispute with large landholders, and charged that the
detained men were also mistreated. To the president, Col. Arturo A. Molina, Bishop
Aparicio sent taped interviews with eyewitnesses who stated that the troops’ attack on
the farmers was unprovoked.
Euthanasia Feared
LONDON (NC) - The bishops of England and Wales, spying a movement to make
euthanasia a part of Britain’s laws and way of life, have issued a statement “about the
care and consolation which are due to those who are nearing death.” They
distinguished carefully between withdrawing “extraordinary” medical supports from
the hopelessly ill and the “form of killing” which consists in the “deliberate and direct
ending of one’s own or another’s life.” Such direct killing “is murder and is forbidden
by the law of God and the law of the land.”
Editor for NCR
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (NC) - Arthur Jones, former New York associate editor and
European bureau chief for Forbes Magazine, has been appointed executive director of
the National Catholic Reporter, an independent weekly newspaper published here.
Donald J. Thorman, editor and publisher of the National Catholic Reporter, said that
Jones will succeed Father John Joyce, who will direct a new visual medium division
for the National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company.
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