NEW YEAR MASS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27276, 30 December 1949, Page 6

NEW YEAR MASS

HISTORIC OCCASION

CELEBRATION AT MIDNIGHT To mark the Holy Year which began on Christmas Eve with the opening of the holy door of St. Peter’s in Rome, an unusual and solemn function will take place in St. Joseph’s Cathedral on New Year's Eve. At 11 o’clock the entire clergy of the city, and as many of the faithful who can, will spend in the Cathedral an hour of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament solemnly exposed „on the altar, to implore God’s mercy on mankind. In this exercise they will be led by the parish priests of the city churches. Afterwards, at midnight, solemn mass will be sung by the Co-adjutor-bishop, Dr Kavanagh, assisted by the priests of the city.

For the first time in the history of New Zealand, therefore, a mass will be< celebrated at midnight other than on Christmas Eve—the

traditional moment of the birth of Christ. This almost-unheard-of privilege demonstrates how seriously the Holy Father views the present world crisis and the urgency of his invitation to worldwide prayer and penance to meet it. For many centuries, ever since the first Holy Year in 1300, the Pope has at more or less regular intervals proclaimed a holy or jubilee year. The jubilee is now proclaimed every 25 years. Sometimes, however, there is an ektraordinary jubilee. This last happened in 1933. the nineteenth centenary of the redemption of mankind by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

During the next 12 months all roads will lead to Rome, and Catholics from every corner of the earth will travel to the eternal city, to visit the ancient monuments of Christendom, pay homage to the Holy Father, and return to their own lands with their hearts warmed by the devotion they will have received at fountainheads of their Christian faith. Next March the New Zealand pilgrimage, some 200 strong, will leave for Rome under the leadership of Bishop O’Neill. Weighed down by the troubles that beset the human race, distressed by the rapid advances of vice and unbelief, uneasy at the threat of godless Communism, which has already engulfed so many millions of his children in Eastern Europe and the Far East, the Pope has invited the whole world to join with him this Holy Year to storm heaven with acts of reparation to the outraged majesty of God, and to lead mankind back 4nto the way of prayer, that the Almighty may move men by His grace to a return to the Christian life, the only sure way to peace and tranquility on earth.

It is in keeping with this universal prayer, therefore, that the solemn function is being held in St. Joseph’s Cathedral tomorrow night. Through it Dunedin Catholics will be able to take a more tangible part in the “ year of the great return and the great pardon.”