Evening star., 1924-08-03
ROME FACES TASK
OF HOUSING THRONG
Pilgrims From All Parts of
World Expected to Visit
in Holy Year.
Special Cable to The Star and New York
World. Copyright 1924.

Special Cable to The Star and New York
World. Copyright 1924.
ROME, August 2.-Serious atten-
tion is being given the problem of
housing and feeding the enormous
crowds of pilgrims who are expected
to flock here from all parts of the
world in observance of the holy year,
announced by the Pope to begin next
Christmas eve and extend to Christ
mas eve. 1925.
Both civil and ecclesiastical au-
thorities of the capital are studying
means of regulating the stay of the
visitors.
Special hotels and hostels are being
prepared; new lines of tramways con-
Meeting the center with the suburbs
are being laid down, and the Vatican
is hiring several large buildings on
Monte Mario for the accommodation
of the poorer class of visitors. House.
boats on the Tiber have been sug-
gested as resource for the sum-
mer months. The native population
of Rome is preoccupied by the
thought of a possible scarcity of
foodStuffs.
Contents of Papal Bull.
In the bull of indiction. which was
issued recently. Pope Plus XI, after
stating the origin and scope of the
Holy year, announced that plenary
Indulgence and the entire remission
to all faithful pilgrims who visit the
four great basilicas at least once a
day for 10 days. For those resident
in Rome the period is prolonged to 90
days.
The pope trusts that this jubilee
may be the means of bringing calm
and serenity to Europe" and a peace
not established by treaties, but
springing spontaneously from the
| hearts of all peoples. No durable
peace can exist until both citizens and
| governments become penetrated with
the spirit of charity, which, owing
chiefly to war, he said, seems to have
almost died out.
The most significant part of the
bull is the open way in which Plus
the churches, to which he had already
| referred briefly in his allocution to
| the consistory of cardinals last
| March.
| those churches which, through an
| ancient and regrettable schism, are
| today kept far from Rome. Nothing
could be more grateful to US than to
see them all return to the fold of
Christ on the occasion of this great
! jubilee, -. and we cherish the
hope that this greatly desired result
may follow the celebration of the
Holy year"
| The pope also looks forward to a
| settlement of the Holy Land in ac-
cordance with the rights of Catholi-
| cism.
On Christmas eve the Porte Sante
| or Holy Doors of the four great Ro-
man basilicas-St. Peter, St Paul,
| ST. John Lateran and Santa Maria
Maggiore-which are kept walled up
| during the intervals between the
years of Jubilee, will all be thrown
| open. At ST. Peters the ceremony
will be performed by the Pope him
self with a gold hammer and trowel
which the Bishops of the Cath llic
| ing to him for the occasion.
First Holy Year in 1900.
| The celebration of a Holy year was
| instituted in 1900 by Pope Boniface
VIII, who intended it to be renewed
once in every century.
Clement VI in 1343 abridged the in :
| terval to so years, and in 1870 Paul
II decreed that every twenty-fifth
| year should be held as a Jubilee, a
| custom that has continued to the
present day, though not without some
| lapses.
In the nineteenth century there
| was only one Holy Year, in 1925. The
and 1875 were not such as to enable
| it to take place.
Leo XIII proclaimed a Jubilee in
| 1900. and the present Holy year will
| probably prove, for many reasons, TO
| be one of the most important and
| far-reaching religious festivals that
| the world has ever seen