The Year of Mercy is off on a wave of apparent indifference in Rome:
Street venders, hotels and restaurants in the area expected to be bustling with activity, but the unnamed trader explained, “…it is clear the crowds we were told to expect have not materialised.”
The Italian media believe official Vatican figures – which indicate papal audience attendance has decreased thirty percent compared to the same time last year – have declined as a result of the Paris terror attacks.
The last Jubilee year was 2000, in which 150 pilgrims stepped through the doors of St. Peter’s each minute, with a total of 32 million pilgrims.
Rome’s hotel and restaurant federation revealed hotel occupancy rates fell twenty percent since the same time in the previous year.
Go here to read the rest. Perhaps the problem is that the greatest appeal of Pope Francis tends to be among people who would as soon eat ground glass as engage in a traditional Catholic devotion, such as a pilgrimage to Rome, while Pope Francis has been busily alienating Catholics who treasure traditional Catholic devotion.
RE; PopeWatch: Wave of Indifference, the link “Go here to read the rest” is broken.
When you try to appeal to everyone, then you end up appealing to no one.
Thanks for catching that Henry. The link has been fixed.
Who poled the thousands not showing up as to their reason? Sad, that we can no longer trust about what happens in, or comes from, Rome.
There is no perhaps about it.
“For Pope Francis’ Year of Jubilee, the pontiff has done what no other pope has done before – he has asked cathedrals around the world to open holy doors so more people can step through them without leaving their home countries.”
I may be wrong, but didn’t JP II also do that during the last Jubilee? If so, it certainly didn’t stop pilgrims from going to Rome.
I was at a wedding on Saturday and got into one of those ‘state of the world’ conversations. The other adults all said they did not want their college age children travelling to Europe right now.
perhaps so. Perhaps another part of the problem is the great leveling of everything. nothing particularly matters anymore.
No distinctions; all relative, Can’t imagine Holy Roman Emperor Henry at Canossa or Henry 2 in England being flogged- what is there to be that sorry for?
I wonder, how many people travel to Rome during a Jubilee Year for the plenary indulgence itself? Going for the event, going to say you passed through the doors, I can imagine. But the indulgence, I’m not so sure about. Full disclosure: while I’m the type of person who would be very interested in things like indulgences, I’m also deeply scrupulous, and I know that even thinking about the topic could drive me mad. I just have no feel for how many people are devout enough to pursue it, who wouldn’t have received indulgences in other ways.
Here’s JPII’s:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/jubilee/documents/hf_jp-ii_doc_19830106_bolla-redenzione.html
Auto-translating from Italian, it says:
12. The Holy Door, which I will open in the Vatican Basilica on 25 March, a sign and symbol of a new access to Christ, Redeemer of man, who calls everyone, without exception, to an appropriate consideration of the mystery of redemption and to share its fruits (cf. 1 Tim 2,4), especially through the sacrament of penance.
A special rite of prayer and penance may be celebrated by bishops from around the world in their cathedrals, the same day or on the very next, so that, in the beginning of the solemn jubilee, the entire episcopate of the five continents, with its priests and faithful, to manifest his spiritual union with the successor of Peter.
Vs Francis:
http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/bulls/documents/papa-francesco_bolla_20150411_misericordiae-vultus.html
The Holy Year will open on 8 December 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This liturgical feast day recalls God’s action from the very beginning of the history of mankind. After the sin of Adam and Eve, God did not wish to leave humanity alone in the throes of evil. And so he turned his gaze to Mary, holy and immaculate in love (cf. Eph 1:4), choosing her to be the Mother of man’s Redeemer. When faced with the gravity of sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy. Mercy will always be greater than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready to forgive. I will have the joy of opening the Holy Door on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. On that day, the Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instils hope.
On the following Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Rome – that is, the Basilica of Saint John Lateran – will be opened. In the following weeks, the Holy Doors of the other Papal Basilicas will be opened. On the same Sunday, I will announce that in every local church, at the cathedral
– the mother church of the faithful in any particular area – or, alternatively, at the co-cathedral or another church of special significance, a Door of Mercy will be opened for the duration of the Holy Year. At the discretion of the local ordinary, a similar door may be opened at any
shrine frequented by large groups of pilgrims, since visits to these holy sites are so often grace-filled moments, as people discover a path to conversion. Every Particular Church, therefore, will be directly involved in living out this Holy Year as an extraordinary moment of grace and spiritual renewal. Thus the Jubilee will be celebrated both in Rome and in the Particular Churches as a visible sign of the Church’s universal communion.
So the difference is that Francis said every Cathedral WOULD be doing this.
Why do we need a Year of Mercy anyway? Only sinners need “mercy” and we all know that sin is kind of an old fashioned concept, not something that people do much of.
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Then too, the only people I know who actually know what an indulgence is and think well of them are a bit on the elderly/frail side. Not sure they are up for that kind of travel to Rome. The younger people, the ones who would go, probably 1)can’t afford to go 2) too busy to take that kind of time off 3) think an indulgence is a medieval thing used as a scam to line the pockets of some unscrupulous friars.
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I heard on the radio some years back that an indulgence was a way to “inject grace” back into the world, a world damaged by sin and ignorance. But surely such devotions as First Fridays, monthly confessions, daily Mass, the Rosary, Divine Mercy, adoration, etc are better at rectifying things than going to Rome?
There’s nothing about indulgences that means you can’t do other faith-building exercises; do what works for you, in addition to what you must, and let others do likewise.
I agree, people should do the what works for them-my language could have reflected that better.) I’m just responding to why pilgrim numbers may be down-loss of a sense of sin, lack of understanding of indulgences (I admit, I’m still sketchy on it myself.)
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I did ask one young man I know who is pretty serious about the faith on what he would rather do–all things being equal. Go to S. America on a mission trip, or go to Rome for the Jubilee, Royal Doors, etc. No contest–mission trip won.
It is not surprising attendance is down. Fear, indifference, wide-spread availability rendering it pedestrian and a bit superstitious
The ‘Mercy’ side door in our Cathedral is decked out with papal colors with two lists corporal and spiritual works of mercy on either side. The only thing I remember being told about it was that the Mercy door could be used to enter but not to leave by, advice that was instantly ignored. The Mercy door is also available at one of the parishes in our diocese.
Anyway, Pope Francis has done it again: bored the indifferent and further alienated the faithful.
Phillip and others who wondered about the Holy Doors all over the world: In 2000, there were additional Holy Doors in each diocese; I know because my mother and I made a pilgrimage to Rome in Feb/March 2000, and I picked up an English-language pamphlet at the Vatican that stated so. Upon returning to the U.S., I checked with the Archdiocese website and found out that there was a Holy Door at San Gabriel Mission, in the Los Angeles area (there was likely more than one, but I remember only that one because it was in our region). I told several of my friends and family about it, and they made the pilgrimage, confession, etc. for the indulgence.
2 Peter 2