Holy Year in Albany Diocese

* At Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard will open a Holy Door in imitation of the Pope. The same act of solidarity will be repeated in churches throughout the Diocese.

* Bishop Hubbard will celebrate Midnight Mass on New Year's Eve at the Cathedral to mark the arrival of 2000.

* This Lent, thousands of Catholics in the Diocese resume their participation in Renew and Follow Me! Begun in the fall of 1998, the three-year efforts of renewing and deepening faith bracket the Holy Year as preparation, celebration and follow-up.

* In April, Bishop Hubbard will host a three-day televised retreat on discipleship (see page 15 for further details).

* On Pentecost Sunday, Christians of many denominations will gather at First Lutheran Church in Albany for an ecumenical celebration of the millennium.

* In October, the Bishop will lead a pilgrimage to Rome to participate in Holy Year activities (see page 36).

* Throughout the Holy Year, a plenary (total) indulgence is available to Catholics who fulfill certain obligations. An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment for the sins people have committed. The conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence include:

* Worthily celebrating sacramental confession;

* Participating in the Eucharist, preferably on the same day a work of charity is performed;

* Giving witness to communion with the Church, manifested by prayer for the intentions of the pope, and also by acts of charity and penance expressing true conversion of heart.

A plenary indulgence can also be gained through actions which express the penitential spirit which is the heart of the jubilee. These actions include:

* abstaining for at least one whole day from unnecessary consumption (e.g. from smoking or alcohol, or fasting, or practicing abstinence according to the general rules of the Church and the norms laid down by the bishops' conferences) and donating a proportionate sum of money to the poor;

* supporting by a significant contribution works of a religious or social nature (especially for the benefit of abandoned children, young people in trouble, the elderly in need, foreigners in various countries seeking better living conditions); or

* devoting a suitable portion of personal free time to activities benefiting the community or other similar forms of personal sacrifice.

These conditions can be fulfilled in Rome or the Holy Land, if Catholics make a pious pilgrimage, and in churches designated by the local bishop. In the Albany Diocese, Bishop Hubbard has appointed the following churches, one for each county, as places where indulgences will be granted:

* Cathedral, Albany

* St. Mary's, Hudson

* St. Peter's, Delhi

* St. Mary of Mt. Carmel, Gloversville

* St. Patrick's, Catskill

* Annunciation, Ilion

* St. Mary's, Amsterdam

* St. Mary's, Oneonta

* St. Paul's, Troy

* St. Clement's, Saratoga Springs

* St. Joseph's, Schenectady

* St. Vincent's, Cobleskill

* St. Mary's, Glens Falls

* St. Joseph's, Greenwich.

(For further information on plenary indulgences, check with one of the churches listed here. The complete official diocesan statement on plenary indulgences can be read on The Evangelist's web site: www.evangelist.org.)

(12-23-99) [[In-content Ad]]