Pope Pius XII Closing the Jubilee of 1950

Jubilee years traditionally begin with the Pope opening the Holy Door of St Peter’s basilica on Christmas eve, and end with him closing it exactly one year later. However, there have often been minor changes and adjustments to such customs; one such change was made when St John Paul II decided to extend the Great Jubilee of 2000 by twelve days, to end on Epiphany of 2001. The current jubilee will follow this same pattern, and end when Pope Leo closes the door on Epiphany of the new year, the day before the extraordinary consistory begins.

Here is a report from the always-interesting archive of the old newsreel company British Pathé, which shows Pope Pius XII closing the door exactly seventy-five years ago today, on Christmas eve of 1950.
 

What Might It Be Like to Have Lucy, Not Luce, as a Mascot?

No reader here needs to be reminded of the Holy See’s decision to commission and propagate the fictional mascot “Luce” as a symbol for the 2025 Holy Year. Concerns about its suitability were raised across a broad spectrum. I wrote about Luce on my Substack (here); so did Kevin Tierney and Miss Margaret Andrews. Indeed, the grand doyen of the John Paul II era, George Weigel, recently described Luce as “the mascot of dumbed-down Catholicism.”

Well, I’m certainly not going to rehash any of that today.

Instead, I’d like to share a different kind of artistic solution. A Facebook friend had asked his daughter, an art student at the University of Dallas, to create sketches of Saint Lucy, crafted in a manga style. This depiction of a real saint whose life and martyrdom offer a powerful witness of faith connects modern aesthetics with authentic Catholic spirituality. 

I think we can safely say this presents a more grounded and inspiring symbol for the Jubilee. In Saint Lucy, we celebrate a true Catholic heroine and exemplar, keeping the Jubilee’s sacred essence intact. This rendering offers a meaningful alternative to Luce, resonating with a contemporary audience while honoring our tradition.

Why did something like this never occur to anyone at the Vatican?

The artist’s name is Isabelle Velasco; our thanks to her for allowing us to share her work.

Editor’s note: there is also a particular historical reason why St Lucy would make an excellent patron for pilgrims, namely, that she was a pilgrim herself. As I have noted before, the written accounts of her life are universally recognized to be unreliable, in no small part because of the very notable inconsistencies between the different versions. For example, the Roman breviary makes no mention of the common story that she was blinded during her sufferings, and for the sake of which she is often depicted holding her eyes on a plate. But one of the stories about her which is consistently reported is that she made a pilgrimage from her native city of Syracuse in Sicily to the tomb of St Agatha in Catania, in order to pray for the healing of her mother. This story is referred to more than once in the texts for her Divine Office, as e.g. in the first antiphon of Lauds: “As Saint Lucy was praying, the blessed Agatha appeared to her, and consoled the handmaid of Christ.”

St Agatha appearing to St Lucy, 1410, by the Venetian painter Jacobello del Fiore (1370 ca. - 1439). Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.   

Of course, pilgrimages were part of the Christian religion from the beginning, and we know for certain that people were coming to Rome (just to give one example) to visit the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul well before St Lucy died in the persecution of Diocletian, ca. 304 A.D. Nevertheless, hers is one of the earliest examples of a Saint making a pilgrimage to the tomb of another Saint, so may she protect all the pilgrims who will come to Rome in the upcoming Jubilee year.

Introducing the Newest Jubilee Mascot: Tenebro

I am sure that by now, all of our readers have met Luce, the official mascot of the upcoming Jubilee, who was introduced to the world on Monday as an expression of the Church’s desire “to live even within the pop culture so beloved by our youth.” However, as many have noted, the style of the new mascot seems geared to appeal to those who are so young that they are just as likely to fall asleep under a pew as to sit in one, leaving the unfortunate impression that the Faith is something to be grown out of. Rightly might one suspect that she holds little interest for groups within the Church whose numbers are growing, such as young men, and those who love traditional forms of worship. 

To meet this problem, the wise men of the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith have decided that the Jubilee of 2025 will have a whole range of mascots, designed to appeal to a variety of demographics. New Liturgical Movement is very proud to have been chosen as the outlet for introducing the world to the first new character in the Luce expanded universe, her putative (n.b.!) nemesis Tenebro.

The official backstory of Tenebro is that he is one of the Rigidicons, a group who are reputed to have the dark power to gradually extinguish all the lights of progress that have been lit within the Church over the last 60 years. (This power is suggested by the fact that they dress primarily in black.) In early episodes of the upcoming animated series, it will appear to many that Tenebro is trying to hinder Luce from completing her pilgrimage to Rome.

But, as is so often the case, the real story is a lot more complicated. (Spoiler alert!) It will be gradually revealed that another character, the Pontiff Supreme Benedicto, transformed the power of the Rigidicons, such that the lights which they extinguish come blazing back to life and illuminate the whole Church. Tenebro is one of a growing faction among the Rigidicons who have embraced this transformation of their power for good, which is conveyed through the diadem on his chest. (It will also be Tenebro who teaches the young Luce that a rosary is not a necklace...)

New Liturgical Movement will be the first to let you know as each of a whole spate of new Jubilee mascot characters is brought out to an eagerly waiting Church and world.

Priestly Silver Jubilee in the Philippines

On the feast of St Andrew the Apostle, Fr Michell Zerrudo, chaplain and spiritual director of Societas Ecclesia Dei Sancti Ioseph - Una Voce Insularum Philippinarum, celebrated a solemn High Mass for his silver jubilee of priestly ordination at the parish of the Most Holy Redeemer in the Philippine diocese of Cubao. (This parish is a regular contributor to our photoposts.) Fr Zerrudo was ordained by the late Jaime Cardinal Sin, and since then has offered the usus antiquior first under the Ecclesia Dei indult, granted by Cardinal Sin, and up to the present under the provisions of Summorum Pontificum. NLM is glad to offer our thanks and congratulations to him - ad multos annos!

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Pontifical Mass in Ottawa Cathedral for St Clement’s Parish Jubilee

St Clement’s Parish in Ottawa, Ontario, has been celebrating its 50th anniversary this year; as we noted in an article earlier this year, St Clement’s, which is now run by the Fraternity of St Peter, was one of the few churches that held on to the celebration of the traditional rite after the promulgation of the post-Conciliar reform. For a ten-year period, it was constrained to use the new rite, and did so according to the mind of the Council, with Latin, chant and worship ad orientem; in 1984, the traditional rite was restored, and has continued ever since.

On the evening of November 22, Fr Joseph Bisig, one of the founding members of the FSSP, and the first Superior General, celebrated solemn First Vespers of St Clement in the parish.

For the feast day itself, His Excellency Terrence Prendergast, the Archbishop of Ottawa, celebrated a Pontifical Mass in the cathedral of Notre Dame, the first such Mass to be celebrated in Ottawa cathedral since 1998. The church was packed with parishioners and non-parishioners; a relic of St Clement was displayed in the sanctuary for veneration. In attendance were Fr Bisig, the recently elected Superior General, Fr Andrzej Komorowski, Fr Michael Stinson, the North American District Superior, and the clergy of St Clement. The gold vestments used for the Mass were the same ones used at a Pontifical Mass in Ottawa in 1947, during the landmark Marian Congress, that drew 200,000 people. (Video here.)

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The Basilica of St Gaudentius in Novara, Italy

Our Ambrosian correspondent Nicola de’ Grandi recently visited the Piedmontese city of Novara, which is currently celebrating a jubilee year in honor of its first bishop, St Gaudentius, for the 16th centenary of his death. The jubilee began on his feast day, January 22nd, and will end on the same day next year.

The See of Novara is said to have been founded at the initiative of St Ambrose. The traditional story recounts that while he was returning from official business in nearby Vercelli, his horses refused to move past Novara, which he took as a sign that he was to stay there. It fell to Gaudentius to receive the Saint as a guest, but he felt somewhat embarrassed for the poor hospitality he had to offer. Going out into his garden, he found a large rosebush in full bloom, and an apple tree rich with fruit, even though it was the middle of the winter. In honor of this miracle, the basilica of St Gaudentius has a large chandelier suspended from the ceiling, which is covered in flowers of painted wrought-iron. Each year it is lowered for his feast day, and the flowers cleaned at the city’s expense; they are then reblessed by the bishop and put back in place.

The basilica’s cupola, the city’s most outstanding landmark, was constructed by the architect Alessandro Antonelli from 1844 to 1876, and rises to a height of 396 feet; the statue of Christ at the top is almost 16½ feet tall.

The church to which Antonelli added the cupola was built to replace an older church according to the design of the architect Peregrino Tebaldi, beginning in 1577, but not concluded until 1656.

In the right transept of the basilica is the “scurolo” of St Gaudentius, where his relics were installed in 1711. The silver urn containing them seen in the next photograph is behind the grill seen here.

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Rationale Worn by the Bishop of Eichstätt

The website of the Passionist Fathers of southern Germany and Austria has recently posted some photographs of the opening of the Holy Door in the Diocese of Eichstätt, Germany, which are reproduced here by their very kind permission. In them, the local bishop, H.E. Gregor Maria Hanke, is shown wearing that rarest of liturgical garments, the rationale. This is described by the old Catholic Encyclopedia as a counterpart to the pallium, a humeral collar, ornamented in the front and back with appendages, worn over the chasuble. Formerly used by the bishops of several different Sees, especially in Germany, it is now restricted to Eichstätt, Paderborn, and Toul in France, as well as Krakow, where the form of it quite different from the one we see here.

The Passionists’ church of the Holy Cross, part of which was built in the mid-12th century as a reproduction of the Holy Sepulcher, was selected by Bishop Hanke, rather than his own cathedral, as the location of the Holy Door for the Extraordinary Jubilee.

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Pope Pius XII Inaugurates the Holy Year - Video from 1950

The Holy Year presents a challenge to mankind, for never has the Church faced greater problems. Persecuted in the East, its priests driven underground, its prelates jailed, the Church’s authority opposes the materialistic atheist teachings of Communism. May the new year bring about a change in the hearts of men!”

From the youtube archive of British Pathé, which also has this video with just over nine minutes of outtakes from various events of the Jubilee. (no sound)