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art17
http://www.gentle.org/jgsellers/feature%20articles/article101.htm
"...the great whore that sits upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication....the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Rev. 17:1,2,4,5)
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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -11/30/98- Pope John Paul Sunday began his Church's countdown to 2000, issuing an edict which declares it a Holy Year and tells Catholics what they can do to pass through the pearly gates of heaven faster.
The edict includes ways of earning indulgences to help get to heaven in the fast lane, including by abstaining from smoking and drinking during the Holy Year, and by giving to charity.
The 78-year-old Pope, looking tired at times, presided at a three-hour ceremony in St Peter's Basilica marking the official start of the third and final phase of preparations for 2000. The Holy Year starts on Christmas eve, 1999 and ends on January 6, 2001.
During the mass, the Pope handed over to four cardinals representing Rome basilicas his latest "Bull," called Incarnationis Mysterium (The Mystery of the Incarnation).
The bull, the most solemn form of papal document, was first made public Friday but it carried Sunday's date and became official when sections were read out to the faithful at the morning ceremony in Christendom's largest Church.
One novel aspect is its treatment of indulgences, made infamous in the 16th century for being sold rather than earned.
While many Catholics consider indulgences an anachronism of the past, best known as one of the issues that sparked Martin Luther's Reformation, the conservative Polish Pope clearly assigns them great spiritual significance.
Indulgences are remission of temporal punishment -- suffering in this life or the next in order to purify a soul of sins which have already been forgiven in confession.
The Church teaches that people who do not go directly to paradise or hell after death must do some time in "purgatory," an unpleasant waiting room for heaven.
In the edict, the Pope decrees "all faithful, properly prepared, will be able to make abundant use of the gift of the indulgence..." Attached to the Bull is a four-page Vatican directive called "Conditions for Gaining the Jubilee Indulgence."
There, in small print, lies the smoker's stairway to heaven.
The directive reads: "The plenary indulgence of the Jubilee can also be gained through actions which express in a practical and generous way the penitential spirit which is, as it were, the heart of the Jubilee."
It continues: "This would include abstaining for at least one whole day from unnecessary consumption, that is from smoking or alcohol, or fasting..."
At last Friday's news conference presenting the edict, Vatican officials made clear there had to be penitential spirit behind the abstinence in order for indulgences to work.
The officials stressed that abstaining from smoking or drinking had to be the arrival point of an interior journey of the soul.
Catholics had to understand the significance and the spirit behind the indulgence, otherwise, as one official said, it would be like returning to the thinking of the Middle Ages.
According to the directives, indulgences can also be earned by deeds such as visiting the sick or jailed, making pilgrimages to churches and giving part of one's wealth to charity.
In other parts of the edict promulgated Sunday, the Pope says the Roman Catholic Church must "implore forgiveness" for the historical injustices it committed in the past.
The Pope said that, although the Church's history contained many examples of holiness, it had to be acknowledged that "history also records events which constitute a counter-testimony to Christianity."
During the millennium celebrations, the Catholic Church is expected officially to ask forgiveness for its past errors, including the Inquisition and its treatment of Jews.
Incarnationis Mysterium - "At the Council, the Church became more deeply conscious both of the mystery which she herself is and of the apostolic mission entrusted to her by the Lord."- (excerpt from the "Mystery of the Incarnation")
