VATICAN TV'S JUBILEE PROJECT LOOKS TO 2000 AND BEYOND

VATICAN CITY, FEB 25, 1999 (VIS) - The four corners of the globe will be linked electronically with each other and with Rome and the Vatican for the Jubilee Year 2000 celebrations by means of a multi-media interactive project called "TV Beyond 2000," which was created by the Vatican Television Center (CTV) for the Holy Year.

This project, explains Fr. Ugo Moretto, CTV director general, intends to achieve "a planetary dialogue from the north to the south of the world, including countries with high tech infrastructures as well as countries with more modest resources, from the Fiji Islands to Antarctica, from the North to the South Pole, from Alaska to the Amazonian forests."

According to Fr. Moretto, the potential audience for this planetary dialogue is four billion people. The forthcoming Jubilee, he said, "must be an international event, not strictly a Roman celebration. It must be a year in which international dialogue is created among Christians and non-Christians alike, a year in which cultures interact with each other and participate in the Rome Jubilee, as Rome will participate in theirs." He stressed that one of the challenges facing the project is how to make the Jubilee - a momentous event commemorating the 2,000th birthday of Christ - also meaningful for non-Christians.

To implement this initiative, the CTV is currently preparing in Rome the TV Beyond 2000 Processing Center. Participating partners include Microsoft, Philips, Sony and Telecom Italia, each of which will provide their respective services free of charge, thus making this a non-profit venture. ESA, the European Space Agency will co-ordinate the technological aspects of TV Beyond 2000. CTV will provide the contents, such as the live broadcasts of all papal events during the Holy Year 2000.

Worldwide broadcast dates have already been set for four major Jubilee events: The simultaneous opening of 5,000 Holy Doors throughout the world on Christmas Day 1999 (the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica will be opened during the Christmas vigil Mass on December 24): Labor Day festivities on May 1: World Youth Day celebrations on August 19 and the millennium transition on December 31, 2000 and January 1, 2001. All special events will be transmitted live. Locally, a network may use a program live or defer its transmission in consideration of time zones.

Upon request broadcasters throughout the world will be able to receive and transmit the special events of TV Beyond 2000. The signal will be provided free of charge by the processing center in Rome. CTV has already been in touch with some of the world's major networks such as the American cable station CNN, Italy's RAI, Brazil's Rede Globo and Mexico's Televisa. Plans are also underway with Central China TV to televise some events. "The Chinese," said Fr. Moretto, "have shown a willingness to participate in this project, though for the moment no liturgical events will be broadcast. We have made contact, and are continuing to do so, with various Chinese government ministries, and so far we have found a great openness for this project."

Both digital and analogue satellite will be used in weaving together the complex series of transmissions and interactive video and audio links which are being planned. "We are also working on setting up a kind of dialogue with the Vatican," said Moretto. "We hope to achieve this through the Vatican's web site. We want people from throughout the world to take part in these celebrations, and to give us their reactions, feedback and contributions."

At the moment 152 contact points on five continents have been set up by CTV to assist in coordinating this project, and in publicizing events and transmissions schedules.

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