HOLY YEAR 2000: JUBILEE ON THE HIGH SEAS

VATICAN CITY, NOV 11, 1999 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples announced today that the Jubilee indulgence will be granted to seafarers who, due to long periods of work at sea, would otherwise be unable to celebrate the Holy Year 2000 at the holy sites designated in Rome, the Holy Land or their country of origin.

A special decree to this effect was signed by Cardinal William Baum, Major Penitentiary of the Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, on November 1, and grants those at sea the possibility of receiving the Jubilee indulgence that is received by those who make a pilgrimage under the following conditions: a perfect act of contrition and a firm intention to receive the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist as soon as possible; the recitation of the Our Father and the Creed in front of a religious image and a prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.

The communique states: "The Holy Father, showing once again his paternal solicitude for the special situation of seafaring persons who live and work far from their Christian community and their families in conditions which are particularly difficult and often dangerous, wanted the Jubilee celebration to be facilitated for them and desired that the particular conditions that he offers them be promulgated through a special official decree from the Holy See."

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