Pope John Paul II closed the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on January 6, the feast of the Epiphany, bringing a formal end to the Jubilee year. However, in his homily the Holy Father pointed out that the call to conversion, the essential thrust of the Jubilee, remains an imperative for all believers. The Holy Door is a symbol of Jesus Christ, he said, but even after it is closed, “the heart of Christ remains as open as ever.”

Before presiding at the Mass for Epiphany in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope knelt in silent prayer at the Holy Door of the Vatican basilica for a few last moments—just as he had knelt in the same spot after opening the Holy Door to inaugurate the Jubilee on Christmas Eve, 1999. Following that 20-minute ceremony, the Pope celebrated Mass before a congregation estimated at 100,000. In warm but windy weather, the congregation filled St. Peter’s Square, and trickled out onto the street heading toward the Tiber River. The Pope was frequently interrupted by applause during his homily, as he spoke of the “great year of grace” that the Church had enjoyed. “Today that extraordinary year officially ends,” he said. “But the spiritual gifts remain, and will last until the end of time.”

The success of the Jubilee should not give rise to any sort of triumphalism, the Pontiff continued. “How could we succumb to that sort of temptation, at the end of such an intensely penitential year?” he asked. He reminded the congregation that the theme of the Jubilee had been a call to penance and conversion, and recalled his plea for a “purification of memory” in light of the fact that Christian history is “marked largely by our sins.”

The Pope concluded his homily with the same words that he used at the beginning of his pontificate: “Open wide the doors to Christ!”

After the Mass, the Pope led the singing of the Te Deum in thanksgiving for the blessings of the Jubilee year. Then he offered his thanks to the many people who had helped to make the Jubilee a success. Finally, he toured through St. Peter’s Square in his Popemobile, greeting the faithful, before retiring to his apartment.

The closing of the Holy Door came after a final night when the Vatican basilica remained opened much later than usual—until 3 in the morning—to accommodate the thousands of pilgrims who had come to Rome for the last day of the Jubilee. (Ordinarily St. Peter’s is closed at 6:30 in the evening.) Vatican employees had received instructions that they should not close the doors “until the last pilgrim has passed.”

At the other three great basilicas of Rome, the Holy Doors had been closed during the afternoon of January 5. Cardinal Carlo Furno, the archpriest of St. Mary Major, closed the doors to that basilica. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the chairman of the Vatican committee that coordinated Jubilee plans, was the Pope’s representative at St. John Lateran. And Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope’s vicar for the Rome diocese, presided at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls.

At noon on January 6 the Pope signed an apostolic letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, closing the Jubilee year. In 59 numbered paragraphs, the document invites local churches to reflect on the results of the Holy Year, and take “concrete initiatives” to capitalize on the spiritual gains. “After the enthusiasm of the Jubilee,” Christians should not expect a return to the routines of daily life, the Pope wrote. “On the contrary, if our pilgrimage has been authentic, it has strengthened us for the road that lies ahead.”

Christmas celebration
The spirit of the Jubilee year was, naturally enough, a consistent theme of the Pope’s public talks during the celebration of Christmas at the Vatican. The Holy Father delivered the traditional Urbi et Orbi Christmas message at his noon audience on Christmas Day in St. Peter’s Square. During the same audience he also gave his Christmas greetings to the world, delivering them in 59 different languages.

In his Urbi et Orbi message, the Pontiff mentioned his concerns over the plight of Christians in the Holy Land and in Indonesia. The message began with a reference to the Genesis account of creation, emphasizing that Adam was created as a “living being” and that God’s first gift to mankind was precisely the gift of life. Every sin is a refusal of that gift, the Pope continued. And at Christmas we celebrate the greatest triumph for human life, in which we see “the face of God reflected in the face of a child.”

“We cannot but recall today that shadows of death threaten people’s lives at every stage of life, and are especially menacing at its earliest beginning and its natural end,” the Pope said. Yet at Christmas, he continued, we realize anew that “however dense the darkness may appear, our hope for the triumph of the Light which appeared on this Holy Night at Bethlehem is stronger still.

Several hours earlier, during the midnight Mass in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope had recalled his own Jubilee pilgrimage to the Holy Land and especially his visit to Bethlehem. “In spirit I embrace that blessed ground from which an imperishable joy shot out across the world,” he said. In his homily at that midnight Mass—celebrated with over 50,000 pilgrims who stood for hours in a driving rain—the Pontiff likened the news of Christ’s birth to lightning that “illuminated the world with the fire of God’s love.” He said: “May that fire continue to burn in our hearts as the flame of real charity, so that we welcome and care for our many brothers who are suffering and in need.”

During most of the years of his pontificate, John Paul has traveled to his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo for a few days of rest after Christmas. But this year he chose to stay at the Vatican, to greet the pilgrims who had flocked to Rome for the close of the year. (He had stayed in town the previous year, too, as the Jubilee began.) In fact he made several unscheduled public appearances between Christmas and the Epiphany, greeting pilgrims and delivering short talks from the balcony of his apartment in the Apostolic Palace.

Taking stock
After the ceremonial closing of the Holy Door, bringing an end to a year of non-stop activity, it was time at last to pause and reflect: to appraise the impact of the Holy Year.

During the first days of the Jubilee, officials at the major basilicas made a valiant attempt to count the number of pilgrims who passed through the Holy Doors. They soon abandoned that effort, overwhelmed by the numbers, so no one really knows how many thousands of people passed through the Holy Doors.

The Roman organizers of the Jubilee estimated that 24.2 million pilgrims came to Rome during the Jubilee year. The Italian national center for statistics puts the figure considerably higher: 32 million. In 1999, the city of Rome saw about 18 million visitors. So at a minimum the Jubilee caused a 30 percent increase in the number of visits. But by all accounts, the number of ordinary tourists—those visiting Rome for non-religious reasons—dropped significantly this year, as the crowds of Jubilee pilgrims discouraged secular visitors. The busiest sites during the Jubilee year were the Roman basilicas and catacombs, rather than the museums and national monuments.

The single largest event of the year, in terms of participation, was World Youth Day in August—when more than 2 million young people descended on Rome (and many residents of the city prudently left for vacation). An estimated 400,000 people participated in the year’s opening ceremonies in December 1999, and a similar number came to the Eternal City during the final days of the Jubilee.

Organizers of the Jubilee, both at the Vatican and in the civil government of Rome, congratulated each other for the efficient management of the celebration. To the surprise of cynical forecasters, Rome had not been paralyzed by traffic jams, nor had there been any serious shortages or crises. Pope John Paul made a point of saluting the 70,000 volunteers who had helped greet pilgrims in Rome during the year, saying that they were “a living image of the Jubilee spirit.” And in another meeting with Italian police officers, the Pontiff observed: “The intense days of celebration of the Jubilee passed without serious problems, disorder, or danger,” thanks to the efforts of security officials.

Despite the extraordinary expenses incurred during the year, the Vatican reported a positive economic balance for the celebration. The surplus funds will be used to build a new facility at the Vatican to accommodate handicapped pilgrims. As he presented an accounting for the Jubilee expenses, Bishop Crescenzio Sepe told reporters that “not one lire” of the income from the celebration would remain in the Vatican coffers. The secretary of the committee that coordinated Jubilee planning pointed out that Pope John Paul II had directed the use of surplus funds for a “concrete sign” of charity.

Most important, however, was the spiritual impact of the Jubilee. “You have been given a precious heritage, which should be passed along to future generations,” the Pope told organizers during a meeting on January 11. That heritage entails two central principles, he continued. First, “put Christ at the center of personal and social life.” Second, “bear witness to charity through pardon, service, receptiveness, and sharing.” The Jubilee had changed countless thousands of lives, the Pope concluded, and “nothing will ever be the same!”