Mount Saint Marys College - Eagle Yearbook (Orchard Lake, MI)

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112 part in the procession of Corpus Christi, and on the 11th and the 18th of the same month, he will preside at canonizations. Thousands of Catholics from the whole world will visit Rome to take part in the ceremonies. Throngs will fill the famed Basilicas. Pil- grims will pray at the High Altar in St. Peter's where the body of the first Bishop and Pope lies. They will venerate the relics located in other basilicas. In the famed Basilica of St. john Lateran, the pilgrims will view the table on which the first sacrifice of the Mass was offered by the First Priest, Jesus Christ. They will also visit the catacombs and the tombs of saints and martyrs. But sightseeing is not the main purpose of the Holy Year pilgrimages. They are not tours nor pleasure trips. Pope Pius XII warns against such a view and points out the true purpose of the Holy Year: This pil- grimage, beloved children, must not be undertaken after the fashion of pleasure-seeking tourists, but in that spirit of earnest piety which moved the faithful of Christ of every class and country in past ages to over- come numerous obstacles and hardships of a journey sometimes made on foot to Rome in order to wash away their sins by the tears of pen- ance and implore pardon and peace from God. On May 26, 1949, Pope Pius XII issued the Bull, jubilaeum Maxi- mum, inviting all nations to join in celebrating the Holy Year and surn- moning all the faithful not only to expiate their faults and amend their lives but also to lead them to acquire virtue and holiness accord- ing to the words of the Holy Scripture, 'Sanctify yourselves and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God'. The three main purposes of the Holy Year may be summed up in the words: Prayer, Penance, Peace. During this year of great return and pardon, Christians have a unique opportunity to lift their hearts to God and beg Him for forgiveness of sins. Nations downtrodden by, Communism, torn by political strife, threatened by famine, need thej prayers of all Christians. It is the hope of the Holy Father that every-Y where . . . the tranquility of order, founded on a just settlement, may be restored as soon as possible, that the various social classes, with hatred banished and differences settled, may be united together in jus- tice and fraternal agreement, and that finally the great number of those in want may be given work to earn an honest living and may receiveq necessary and opportune aid from those who are in better circum- stances. Only by Prayer, Penance and Peace can the success of the Holy Year be achieved. Pilgrims who make the visit to Rome in the spirit of the Holy Year' will gain indulgences. An indulgence is the remission of all or part of! the temporal punishment due to sins already pardoned by the Sacra-, ment of Penance. The Sacrament of Penance forgives sins and the eter-l nal punishment due to them, but it does not remit the temporal punish-l ment due to sin. This temporal punishment due to sin ,must be atoned, for in some way either in this world by works of penance and charityl or in the next world in purgatory. Indulgences can be substituted fori these ways of atoning for the temporal punishment. An indulgence is granted on certain conditions and only by the au- thority of the church. The Pope as the Vicar oft Christ on earth has the, authority of granting indulgences. The Holy Pontiff has granted a fullq indulgence, that is, pardon of all the temporal punishment due to sin' during this year of expiation, to all the faithful who duly confess theiri sins in the Sacrament of Penance, who receive Holy Communion andi visit on that day, or on different days and in the order of their choice, the Basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Peter's in the Vatican, St. Pauls on the Ostian Way and St. Mary Maior's on the Esquiline, and recite! in each Basilica thrice the 'Our Father,' 'Hail Mary' and the 'Glory bd to the Father' for our intentions and in addition the Creed. , Pilgrims will have an unusual opportunity to be reunited with God.l During the Holv Year. they will be able to focus their attention on thel spiritual side of life. Through the merits of Christ, they will benefit by the numerous indulgences, drawn from the Church's spiritual treasury. The Catholic Church includes the Church Militant on earth,1 thel Church Triumphant in heaven, and the Church Suffering in purgatory. We are members of the Church Militant. It is our duty during the Holy Year to do everything to help the Church Suffering. The Holy Year gives us unusual opportunities for gaining indulgences which can be offered for the members of the Church Suffering, the souls in purgaJ tory. By doing this, we can join the Church Triumphant in Heaven i

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year 1450. Because of the immense crowds of pilgrims, the Pope re- duced the visitation of the basilicas first to five days, then to three, and finally to two days. On April 19, 1470, Pope Paul II published a Bull, decreeing that the jubilee was to be held every twenty-five years. This custom has con- tinued to the present day. The first to extend the jubilee to the entire world was Pope Alex- ander VI. At the conclusion of the jubilee Year of 1500 he sent dele- gates to various nations, proclaiming indulgences and substituting for the visits tothe basilicas visits to local churches especially designated by the Papal Commisary or the local Ordinary. In 1500, the elaborate ceremonial was introduced with which the opening of the Jubilee has since been celebrated. The celebration of the jubilee has been uniformly maintained every twenty-five years from 1450 to the present time, excepting in the nine- teenth century when political disturbances made it impossible. There was only one jubilee held in the nineteenth century, that of 1825. Besides the ordinary jubilee celebrated at intervals of twenty-five years, some Popes celebrated Extraordinary Jubilees on special oc- casions, for instance, at their accession to the throne, during great calamities, upon the commemoration of some famous event of church history. The jubilee of 1390 was the first Extraordinary Jubilee and marked the return of the Pope from Avignon. Pope Pius XI, besides declaring the regular Holy Year 1925, had the distinc ion of celebrating two other Holy Years: an Extraordinary jubilee in 1 29 to commem- orate the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the Priesthood, and again, on january 15, 1935, he proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee to commemorate the nineteenth centenary of the Death, Passion, and Resurrection of the Redeemer. On the feast of the Ascension, May 26, 1949, Pope Pius XII pub- lished the Bull jubilaeum Maximum, proclaiming the Holy Year of 1950. The publication of the Bull, a practice introduced by Pope Greg- ory XIII, brings a notable document which closely follows in form and content the historical pattern of earlier Bulls since the time of Boniface VIII. The latest Bull, a 1,300 word document, beautifully designed and illuminated on parchment, sets the period of the Jubilee from Christ- mas, 1949, to Christmas Eve, 1950. Thus, the Holy Year is not a calen- daryearg this is due to the fact that when Pope Boniface VIII pro- claimed the first Holy Year, Christmas Day was considered the first day of a new year. When we celebrate the 1950 Holy Year, we join in an ancient his- toric pageant that goes back to the fourteenth century-and beyond, to the time of Moses-a great and beautiful procession from the past to the present. Alexander Kulick HUlU UEHH-1950 There is a door at St. Peter's-the most famous door in Christendom in 1950. On Christmas Eve, 1949, Pope Pius XII struck this door three times with his silver and ivory hammer, chanting the words of Holy Scripture, Open the doors of justice to me. I will come into Thy house, O Lord. Open up the gates because the Lord is with us. The Holy Father knelt on the threshold momentarily and then passed through the opened Holy Door into the 613 foot long basilica of St. Peter, the largest church in the world, as the first pilgrim of the 1950 Holy Year -the twenty-fifth in the history of the Church. On Christmas Eve, 1950, the Pope will rake a silver trowel and seal a special tablet into the Holy Door and close it until the next Holy Year which will be celebrated in 1975. Between these two key ceremonies there will be many others in the course of the year. On Easter Sunday, the greatest feast day of the Cath- olic Church commemorating Christ's glorious triumph over death, the Pope will celebrate a solemn pontifical Mass in St. Peter's. On April 16th and 27th and again on May 23rd the Pope will beatify holy men and women. On May 7th and on Ascension Thursday and again on May 20th the Pope will officiate at solemn canonizations. On june 2nd, the Holy Father will consecrate the new church of St. Eugene, his pa- tron saint. In the month of the Sacred Heart, june, the Pontiff will take df dxf Vx If Ng I ,f . N ., f-I ' N f A .- N - 7 .., N I , - - .,. . . 1 N - gl ' x f 'it' I . A .rp-, ,- .1 hg,,Efg3r,j . ff , D 'I-C'-Jqdg , lk -As gif.-ful, , -ljgpft f- L. '- -- .W -411 1 --1 :.. is , 5 ,ft 4-'gil' 1' 3 , EES' ::: .xii A,,s,M Iggy. .. ' Q Q ' ,L e-ef -'1mag,.g.3l7+-,:::g- M, Y 1 --f 21,1 .. n.w...vj, -fl . A P if.. ,, - 'lllzlllllliilllillll . -. '1:g-f' Hr if N-.Qt 1' '.5'i1-- ' 1 KT'- H 1' intl' 1. fum' rrri' 'Eva 'Ms ed 13:51 '- I at 212+-' f Q 'Eat 1 12 . -if - 5' i13?5'q5rj- . Lg.. fi P4-'1 ' 5:',.'1l5 frm- .1 -i-' F- pg, rj? 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rejoicing over their release. The crusaders of centuries ago set out for the Holy Land to free and defend it from the Moslems. Christians in 1950 can become modern crusaders by pilgrimaging to the Holy City to restore the peace of Christ throughout the world. Chester S. Frysiak THE PUPES HHH THE UHITEU STHTES When on the twelfth of October 1492, Christopher Columbus reached San Salvador Island in the Bahamas 400 miles east of Florida, the See of Peter was held by its 216th occupant, Pope Alexander VI. Seven months later, in 1493, Alexander signed three documents which conferred on Spain all the islands and the lands of the new world dis- covered by Columbus. A month later on june 25, 1493, the Pope issued a Bull by which he appointed Father Bernard Boyl first Bishop of the new world, introducing the church officially into the Americas. In the next 290 years, thirty-six Popes followed Alexander VI in the long line of successors of St. Peter. During these 290 years, the new world discovered by Columbus was explored, settled and developed by Europeans. One area particularly grew more quickly than others. It was the United States which developed from thirteen small British colonies founded in the early seventeenth century into an independent republic in 1783. At the close of the War of Independence, the number of Catholics in the new Republic was about 22,000 scattered mainly throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania. The first direct relations between the Holy See and the English Catholic Church in the United States occurred in 1784 with the appointment of Father john Carroll as Prefect-Apostolic by Pope Pius VI, the 252nd successor of St. Peter. The same year, on june 16, Pope Pius VI issued a special letter to the Catholics in the United States extending to them the privileges of the Holy Year of 1775, in which American Catholics had been unable to participate owing to the outbreak of the War of Independence. On November 6, 1789, Pope Pius VI issued a brief, Ex has aportolicae, creating the first Episcopal See in the United States-Baltimore-and appointing the first Bishop in the United States-Father john Carroll. This is the first and most precious papal document in the possession of the church in the United States. It marks the formal establishment of the American hierarchy. When the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory and the two Floridas, Pope Pius VII on january 29, 1791, made the new terri- tories a part of the diocese of Baltimore. As years went by, the work in this vast diocese became too large for one Bishop. So in 1799 Pius VII established four new dioceses-Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Bardstown. The four sees were made suffragan to the Archdiocese of Baltimore. I On November 8, 1823, Pope Leo XII decreed the establishment of the provinces of Michigan and the Northwest as a separate diocese with the Episcopal See in Detroit. But the brief of March 20, 1827, erecting the See of Detroit for some unaccountable reason never left Rome. The See of Detroit was finally created on March 8, 1855. In 1840 Pope Gregory XVI condemned those who unjustly molested Indians and Negroes and despoiled and enslaved them. During the Pontificate of Pope Gregory new sees were formed at Indiana, Natchez, Dubuque, Nashville, California, Texas, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Milwau- kee, Chicago and Little Rock. The work of forming new dioceses was continued by Pope Pius IX, who created sees at Oregon, Buffalo, Albany and Cleveland. Pius IX also confirmed the choice of Mary Immaculate as the Patroness of the United States. In 1850 Pope Pius IX acceded to the American request for holding a national Council and appointed Archbishop Francis P. Kenrick to preside over this First Plenary Council in the United States. In his letter of August 9, 1855, Pius IX urged the American Bishops to found an American College in Rome, which was erected on August 15. 1858. When in 1875 the Question of Catholic education was discussed by the American Bishops, the Holy Father urged the American Bishops to establish parochial schools, when various other plans were proposed. On the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the American College, Pope 113