1999

23rd December 1999
Opening of Holy Door at Cathedral for Jubilee Year 2000
Bishop Michael Malone will open the Cathedral's Doors welcoming the Great Jubilee of Year 2000 on Christmas Eve from 11.15pm, 24 December 1999 at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hamilton.

Prior to this year's Christmas midnight Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral (24 December), Catholic Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, the Most Rev. Michael Malone will bless and open the Holy Door at Sacred Heart Cathedral to welcome the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000.

"This year Christmas will be celebrated alongside many millennium festivities. Yet it is important for us as Christians to keep our minds firmly on the distinctive significance of this occasion", said Bishop Michael Malone.

"The millennium is being celebrated because it is, in fact, the Great Jubilee of the birth of Jesus Christ and were it not for that great event, we would not be celebrating this moment at all!

"For Catholics, celebrations begin on Christmas Eve. Together with Pope John Paul II, Catholics the world over will mark the start of this Holy Year in Cathedrals, churches and homes by opening 'new' doors, symbolic of opening ourselves to Christ and to his many blessings and to our mission in the third millennium.

"The Great Jubilee Year 2000 presents a challenge to the whole community, both secular and religious. It is a golden opportunity for a new start - a new start with God, a new start with ourselves and a new start with each other", said Bishop Michael.

Throughout the Year of Great Jubilee 2000, as individuals, families and communities we are urged to incorporate the themes of "Jubilee" into our lives. Jubilee is a call to:

All media are welcome to attend the opening of the Holy Door at Sacred Heart Cathedral (827 Hunter Street, Newcastle West) from 11.15pm.

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