“HOLY YEAR”

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 April 1933, Page 12

“HOLY YEAR”

IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY. When Pope Pius XT. ushers in “Holy Year” bv formally heating open v with a golden mallet the holy door ot f St. Peter’s Church in Rome he will ( perform a ceremony of a most mi- : press!ve character. . i The holy door is the extreme right- < hand d'oor of several noble portals < that open on to the great colonnade ] of St. Peter’s. It is used only during holy years, and it is bricked up imme- ( diately the year ends until the next j celebration, when it is reopened with j magnificent ceremony. < The doorway is majestically ornate, . in keeping with the rest of the build- . ing. Over it is a mosaic of St. Peter, beneath which is a record in marble of the ceremonial openings, surmounted by the Papal arms elaborately carved in marble. , In blocking the door two walls ot bricks are employed. Between the inner and outer walls are placed, wi n appropriate ceremony, parchments and other records of the holy year just ended. A few days before the next holy year begins the inner wall is removed and the bricks, many of which bear the arms and insignia of the donors, are distributed. The bricks forming the ...outer „ W.all are then, from behind, clamped with iron bands--into a solid mass, , which is backed by stout planks and fitted with an elaborate system of pulleys. Upon its front this door bears m the centre a small black cross, at which the Pope aims the blows ot his maUet. On-the occasion of the opening the Pope is accompanied by a throng ot cardinals, bishops, and other high prelates, princes, and civil dignitaries al ranged according to their rank, and followed by a vast crowd ot pilgrims. The approach of the Pontiff is announced by a fanfare of silver trumpets. He advances to the holy dooi, and with the hammer of gold, which is presented to him by the Roman Catholic hierarchy of the knocks once upon the central cioss at the same time. pronouncing in Latin the sacramental formula, Open to me, gate of justice.” At the second blow, harder than the first, the Pope L intones the Latin equivalent of I will 1 enter into Thy holy temple in fear of ■ Thee.” Finally, at the third blow, : which is still harder, the Pope com- ! mand's, “Open to me the door, foi God • is with us.” At these words the dooi ! falls inward and disappears, foi it is : lowered rapidly on to a trolley and ■ wheeled out o/sight. The Pope kneels - upon the threshold, chants the 1- ’ Deum,” and then enters the chu.ch * h.l on o. • It is officially estimated that the m- ’ augural ceremonies of the last ho y - year in Rome were attended by 583,2.,! pilgrims from all parts of the civilised I world.

date of crucifixion. SCHOLARS'SAY A.D. 33. LONDON, January 5. Will 1933 witness the nineteen hundredth anniversary of the Crucifixio of* Jesus Christ? Scholars say Yes. and the Pope has announced a Hob Year, beginning with next I assion Sunday, in token of his acceptance oi the decision. The Holy Year, beginning on April 2, will thus, commemorate nineteen centuries of Christian teaching and'practice. Among English scholars no one Jias given mote thought to this problem than Dr. John Knight Fotheringham, who is an astronomer as well as an Oxford historian. Dr. Fotheringham has decided that the astronomical evidence is conclusive in favour of either A.D. 30 or A.D. 33. , Christ was crucified when. Pontius Pilate was Procurator of Judaea, and Pilate, after a rule of 10 years, was deposed and sent back to Rome in A.D. 37. Pilate reached Judaea about ihe New Year of A.D. 27. But Caiaphas was High Priest, at. the time of Christ’s death, and Josephus says that, he was deposed at a date which cannot be later than the Passover of A.D. 34-35. Moreover, the Crucifixion took place on a Friday, which was the 14th or 15th day of the Jewish month Nisan, the first month of the Jewish year. It was determined by the. first appearance of the moon’s crfescent in the evening sky after the vernal equinox, the time when the sun crosses the equator in the spring, and when day and night are equal. Dr. Fotheringham has shown that between A.D. 27 and 34 there was no year on which the 15th day of Nisan fell on a Friday, so he concludes that the Crucifixion must have taken place on the 14th day. Between A.D. 27 and 34, Nisan 14 fell on a Friday in three years, A.D. 27, 30 and 33. The earliest, of these dates is ruled out by the fact that the baptism must be fixed as taking place in the year 28-29, inasmuch as St. Luke says that the Word of God came to John the Baptist in the fifteenth year of the reingn- of the Emperor Tiberius. From the Baptism the date of the Crucifixion might be calculated if the precise length of Christ’s ministry were known. St. John mentions three Passovers and possibly a fourth. The fact has persuaded Dr. Fotheringham that the year 30 in unlikely, and that A.D. 33 is the only possible date for the Crucifixion. A.D. 30 would not even allow room for a two years’ ministry of Our Lord before the Passover which witnessed his trial and death. Dr. Fotheringham’s judgment, coincides with that of Renan, who also decided that the death of Jesus occurred in the year 33 of our era, and based his opinion upon the fact that the preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus began in 28-29 A.D., and could not have been after A.D. 34-35, when Pilate and Caiaphas lost their offices.

ELECTRICAL MARVELS. WONDERS OF THE VATICAN. ROME, February 7. The Pope’s apartments, with their multiplicity of electrical, gadgets, will soon rival the. “Castle of the Carpathians," as described by Jules Verne. And like the wonders of electrical control imagined by the French visionary and prophet, most of the Vatican appliances are camouflaged in the general rococo designs of the walls and furnishings. The latest of these fittings is the Pope’s private collapsible lift to and from St. Peter’s In a, chapel in line with the Pope’s apartment upstairs in the Vatican Palace you press an ornamental button, whereupon the walls slide back, and behold there is a gilded lift with a seat like a throne. With no sound but a faint sigh it slides down Io a side chapel in the cathedral where the door is built as part of the chapel. The frame of the lift, then folds up so-that when the door is closed the lift, becomes invisible from its ornate surroundings. The Pope’s powerful wireless receiving sei. looks like a palatial chest of drawers and cupboard. You pull two handles and out slides au arm-

chair. You press a button and panels open to reveal a loud-speaker. You press another button and a radio gramophone rises to view and volumes of discs come to hand. At. another place a switch connects up a golden radio microphone holder from where the Pope can tune in to speak privately io his Nuncios and missionaries or can address the world at largo. Other deftly concealed switchboards carry controls that light the Cross above the Dome, illuminate the “Gloria." at the high altar, open the loudspeakers in the cathedral, floodlight the principal statues, operate the. bells in Saint Peter’s belfry, and by means of electrically controlled shutters regulate the volume of their clamour over Rome.