Newspaper Page Text
The
ou
Diocese of
Savannah
Vol. 80, No. 13
$.50 PER ISSUE
Thursday, March 30, 2000
Contents
Headline Hopscotch 2
News 3
Commentary 4-5
Cathedral 6
Youth Ministry 7
Faith Alive! 8-9
Notices 10-11
Last But Not Least 12
Pope preaches peace, reconciliation
on Holy Land pilgrimage
Pope John Paul II prays at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site,
March 26 in Jerusalem. He was the first pope in history to pray at
the wall. The prayer has been placed in the Yad Vashem Museum.
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Jerusalem (CNS)
W ith slow but determined steps,
Pope John Paul II made his
long-desired pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, preaching peace and reconcilia
tion among the region’s peoples and
religions.
From the heights of Mount Nebo in
Jordan to the shores of the Sea of
Galilee in Israel, the pope visited holy
sites of the Old and New Testaments,
making dramatic gestures of respect
for Jews and Muslims and pleading
for the unity of Christians.
Walking carefully through a mine
field of political sensitivities, Pope
John Paul also urged a renewed com
mitment to the Middle East peace
process, guaranteeing the security of
Israel but also satisfying the
Palestinians’ right to a homeland.
The March 20-26 trip culminated in
Jerusalem with visits to the city’s holi
est Muslim, Jewish and Christian sites.
While at every step he made over
tures to other religions and other
Christian churches, he brought energy
to his own personal prayers at church
es marking the site of the Angel Ga
briel’s annunciation to Mary in Na
zareth, Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem and,
especially, his death in Jerusalem.
In fact, instead of resting before go
ing to the airport, the pope returned to
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to
pray at what is believed to be the site
of Jesus’ crucifixion, death and resur
rection.
The pope brought the same intensi
ty of prayer with him March 26 to
Jerusalem’s Western Wall, the holiest
site of Judaism.
The stooped pontiff stood and
placed his trembling hand upon the
massive stone blocks of the 2,000-
year-old wall, as Jews have done for
centuries. As is the Jewish practice,
(Continued on page 3)
Ascension to remain on
Thursday in Atlanta Province
Atlanta
a rchbishop John F. Donoghue has announced that the obser-
XT^vance of the feast of the Ascension, a holy day of obligation,
will remain unchanged and will be celebrated on Thursday, May
24 in the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the dioceses of the province.
Last summer the Holy See approved a request by the U.S. Latin-
rite bishops to permit each ecclesiastical province in the country to
transfer observance of the Ascension from Thursday to the follow
ing Sunday. Approval required that at least two-thirds of the bish
ops of a province vote in favor of the change.
An ecclesiastical province consists of an archdiocese and the
dioceses under it. Archbishop Donoghue is the metropolitan of
the province that consists of the dioceses of Charleston, South
Carolina, Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina, Savannah and
Atlanta, Georgia. The bishops of these dioceses voted to observe
the Ascension on Thursday, May 24, 2000.
The Church’s liturgical law provides for the transfer of three
Solemnities of the Lord—the Epiphany, the Ascension and the
Body and Blood of Christ—to Sunday if they are not observed as
holy days of obligation. The Epiphany and Corpus Christi were
transferred to Sunday in the U.S. in or before 1969 because they
were not observed as holy days in the United States.
The Ascension is the other solemnity in that category, but the
National Conference of Catholic Bishops, with the Holy See’s
approval, has left it to each province to transfer it from Thursday
to Sunday or not.
Cathedral renovation at mid-point
The exterior restoration of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist can be seen
from the street. But the interior restoration has been off-limits to the public for 9
months. The Southern Cross takes you inside the Cathedral for a look at the
renovations on page 6. The dedication of the restored Cathedra! is set for
November 29.