Answer: Pope John Paul II simplified the ceremony for the Jubilee of 2000. Workers had removed the concrete before the ceremony of the opening of the door so that the Pope only had to push on the doors with his hands. The holy door of St. Peter's Basilica was opened by the Pope on December 24, 1999 while the doors of St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major were opened on December 25 and January 1, respectively. Breaking with tradition, the Pope opened both of these personally, rather than delegating this to a cardinal. The doors of Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls were opened in an ecumenical ceremony on January 18, first day of the World Week of Prayer for Christian Unity by the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

It was also the first Holy Year which marks the turn of a millennium, since the first Jubilee was proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300.



Holy Year 2000
Scott 1137-1138 (2000)