Source: CatholicIreland.net
January 8th, 2010
The Holy Door has been opened for the Compostela Holy Year. Pope Benedict XVI has offered the theme "On pilgrimage towards the light" for the Holy Year which is celebrated in years when the feast of the Apostle James (July 25) falls on a Sunday.
The Pope has sent a Message to Archbishop Julian Barrio Barrio of Santiago de Compostela, Spain. In the message, which Archbishop Barrio read out during the course of the Eucharistic celebration that followed the opening of the Holy Door, Benedict XVI reflects the tradition as “a call to evangelisation to the men and women of today, recalling the essentially pilgrim nature of the Church and of Christians in this world.”
“Pilgrims, open to wonder and to transcendence, must allow themselves to be instructed by the Word of God so as to divest their faith of ungrounded beliefs and fears,” the Pope writes. “This is what the Lord did with His disciples who, dazed and discouraged, travelled the road to Emmaus.”
The Holy Father asks God, "To accompany pilgrims, to make Himself known and enter their hearts.”
“This is the true goal, the grace which the mere physical journeying of the Way cannot achieve alone, and which leads pilgrims to become witnesses before others to the fact that Christ lives and is our undying hope of salvation.”
The Pope also refers to this Year for Priests, and calls on priests to welcome pilgrims and to pay particular attention to the administration of the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist, because the most sought-after, valuable and characteristic element of the Holy Year is forgiveness and the encounter with the living Christ.
Benedict XVI invited those who arrive in Santiago to treasure the profound experiences of faith, charity and fraternity they encounter on their journey, and to seek especially to live the Way as an interior experience, responding to the call that the Lord makes to each one of them.
The Holy Door was opened at the supposed site of his burial in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The Door is re-opened at the beginning of every year in which the feast day of St. James, July 25, falls on a Sunday. The last time this took place was in 2004, and the next time will be in 2021.
Ireland is to have its own significant event in two years time when the 50th International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Dublin, from June 10 - 17 2012. The theme reflects the fact that the congress coincides with the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of Vatican Council II, a moment of renewal for the Church's teaching and for her understanding of herself as Body of Christ and Body of God. Parishes have been invited to consider how best to celebrate the 2012 Congress.
Dublin previously hosted a congress in 1932 under the theme, “The Eucharist and Ireland.”
The first International Eucharistic Congress was held by Pope Leo XIII in Lille, France in 1881. The 49th International Eucharistic Congress was held in Quebec City in June 2008, corresponding with that city's 400th anniversary of its founding.
A planning committee, with Glendalough parish priest Fr Kevin Doran as its secretary general, has been set up in Dublin to begin co-coordinating events.
by Ann Marie Foley
