Retravel is a tour operator specialized in religious tours and piligrimages to Rome and other religious destinations throughout Italy. We organize transportation, accommodation in religious institutes, tour guides in the groups' native language and other services for our groups.

Venerabile Arciconfraternita de Parafrenieri

IUBILAEUM A.D. 2000
The Catholic Jubilee

The Catholic Jubilee, is the year of the remissions of the sins, of the reconciliation, of the conversion and of the sacramental penitence.

The most known rite of the Jubilee is the opening of the holy door: it deals with a door that is opened only during the holy Year, while in the other years it is walled. The four greater basilicas in Rome: Saint Peter, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Saint Mary Major, and Saint John Lateran have a holy door. The rite of the holy door symbolically expresses the concept that, during the Jubilee, is offered to the believers a" extraordinary crossed" toward the salvation.

The official beginning of the Jubilee happens with the opening of the holy door of the basilica of St. Peter. The great jubilee in 2000 has been a big event in the Catholic Church; as other precedents years of Jubilee, it has been a celebration of the pity of God and the pardon of the sins.

The preparations for the Great Jubilee are initiated when Pope John Paul II has uttered his apostolic letter "Tertio Millennium Adveniente". In the letter, he invited the Church to begin a period of three years of intense preparations for the celebration of the third Christian millennium.

The various churches and cathedrals in Rome have taken advantage of the jubilee to perform large and necessary reparations. The front of the basilica of St. Peter in Vatican has benn cleaning for months to carefully remove the dirt of centuries.

Indulgence could be gotten in Rome visiting one of the four patriarchal basilicas, Saint Peter, Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Saint Mary Major, Saint John Lateran, as also visiting the Sanctuary of Ours Mrs. of the Divine Love, the Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls or the Christian catacombs in Rome.

During the visit, the pilgrim had to take part to the eucharist celebration or to spend half an hour in eucharist adoration. Pope John Paul II knelt on the threshold of the holy door of the Basilica of St. Peter on December 24, 1999 has begun the Jubilee with the opening of the door instant before the Mass of Midnight.

The Jubilee is closed on January 6, 2001 with the Mass of the Epiphany. The preceding night, the Basilica of St. Peter has been open up to that the last pilgrim has passed through the holy door. This is happened toward the 3.00 in the morning of January 6. After having solemnly closed the holy door, the Pope has celebrated the mass in front of the basilica for a crowd of around 10.000 people. For the occasion the Pope has signed his" Apostolic Letter Novo Millennium Ineunte", in which delineates his plans for the Church of the XXI century.