OPENING OF HOLY DOOR AT ST. MARY MAJOR

VATICAN CITY, JAN 1, 2000 (VIS) - Today, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God and 33rd World Day of Peace, the Pope opened the Holy Door of St. Mary Major and celebrated Mass.

In his homily, John Paul II made reference to peace, stating that the path to consolidating this is "unfortunately under ever greater threat, as the painful events that at various times have marked the history of the twentieth century remind us. For this reason, we must more than ever wish for peace in the name of God. May the Lord give you peace!"

"On this most important of days," continued the Holy Father, "I have had the joy of opening the Holy Door in this venerable basilica founded by Liberius, the first basilica in the west to be dedicated to the Virgin Mother of Christ. Today, a week after the solemn celebration that took place in St. Peter's, it is as if the ecclesial community of each nation and continent were gathered here in spirit, under the gaze of the Mother, in order to cross the threshold of the Holy Door that is Christ."

After recalling the words of the Gospel: "Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart," the Pope said that "all mothers have a similar awareness of the start of a new life within them. Each man's story is written, first of all, in his own mother's heart. It is no surprise that the same thing came about in the earthly life of the Son of God."

"Mary was present with the Apostles on the day of the Pentecost. She played a direct role in the birth of the Church. Since that time, her maternity has accompanied the history of redeemed humanity, the path of the great human family for whom the work of Redemption is destined. Oh Mary! At the start of the year 2000, as the Jubilee progresses, we rely upon this 'recollection' of your maternity! ... To you we entrust the days of the new year, the future of the Church, of humanity, of the universe itself."

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