JUBILEE PROGRAMS FOR JOURNALISTS AND PERFORMING ARTISTS

VATICAN CITY, JAN 24, 2000 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press Office, Archbishop John P. Foley and Bishop Pierfranco Pastore, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, presented the program for World Communications Day, 2000.

On a historical note, Archbishop Foley recalled that during Vatican Council II, the world's bishops had proposed almost unanimously that World Communications Day be celebrated on the Sunday before Pentecost. The reason for this is, he said, "the emphasis that the biblical readings used in the Liturgy during that period place on the proclamation of the Gospel, the announcing of the good news of Jesus Christ."

Furthermore, he added, the message for this day, whose theme is "Proclaiming Christ in the Media at the Dawn of the New Millennium," is published on the feast of St. Francis of Sales, patron saint of journalists, "in accordance with the request of bishops and episcopal commissions for social communications throughout the world."

Bishop Pastore outlined the program for the Journalists' Jubilee (June 1-4) and for the Performing Artists' Jubilee (December 15-17), although he conceded that the calendar is not yet definitive.

On the afternoon of Thursday, June 1, Solemnity of the Ascension, there will be a moment of prayer in the Sistine Chapel. A conference on "Truth and Witness" is scheduled for Friday, June 2, as is a visit to the catacombs. On the afternoon of the same day, from the Holy See Press Office, a video conference will be transmitted on the theme, "Prospects for the Church in the Third Millennium" with links to the world's principal communications media.

An ecumenical celebration is scheduled for Saturday, June 3. The event, entitled "Feast of the Word" and presided by Cardinal Edward I. Cassidy, will take place in the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls in the presence of other Christian denominations. The afternoon will be a time for confessions, these will take place in linguistic groups at, among others, the Spanish and American colleges. A concert will be held at 9 p.m. On Sunday, June 4, a Jubilee Mass will be celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica. An audience with the Pope is scheduled for journalists who participate in the Jubilee.

Regarding the performing artists' Jubilee, Bishop Pastore indicated that three celebrations - Marian, Penitential and Eucharistic - will be held on December 15 in various Roman basilicas. On Saturday, December 16, martyrs will be commemorated at a place in Rome yet to be defined and the performers will have the chance to express the reasons that motivated them to accept the Holy Father's invitation to attend the Jubilee. At 10 a.m. on Sunday, December 17, a Jubilee Mass will be celebrated at the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls. The same afternoon a show will be held, closing the three days of the Jubilee. It is likely that on one of those days, the Holy Father will receive the participants in audience.

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