The Great Jubilee in 2000 was a major event in the Catholic Church, held from Christmas Eve (24 December) 1999 to Epiphany (6 January) 2001.

Preparation for the Great Jubilee began when Pope John Paul II issued his Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (As the Third Millennium Approaches) on 10 November 1994.

[1] The formal convocation of the holy year came through the papal bull of indiction, Incarnationis Mysterium (Mystery of the Incarnation), on 29 November 1998.

The Holy See also arranged to build a massive parking garage under the Janiculum hill, in order to accommodate all the buses that were expected.

Construction of the garage was halted for some time due to the discovery of mosaics dating from the imperial period in previously unknown chambers under the hill.

After a series of prayers and hymns, punctuated by African elephant tusks being blown, the Pope, clad in a purple cope, pushed on the doors as they were drawn open from inside by assistants.

The fourth holy door, that of St. Paul Outside the Walls, was not opened until 18 January 2000, to launch the week of prayer for Christian Unity.

The opening of the door was carried out simultaneously by the Pope, Metropolitan Athanasias, representing the Ecumenical Patriarch, and George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury.

The liturgy of the day included readings from the Bible, from the Lutheran martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer and from the Russian theologian Georges Florovsky.

Roger Etchegaray, cardinal president of the Central Committee for the Jubilee, exhorted the confession of sins that caused division among Christians; Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, acknowledged the faults committed "against the people of the Covenant," the Jews; and Japanese Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao, president of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, mentioned sins committed against love, peace, the rights of peoples, respect of cultures and religions.

Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, requested confession of sins that have wounded the dignity of woman and the unity of mankind.

Finally, Vietnamese Archbishop François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, encouraged confession of sins in the area of fundamental rights of the human person: abuses against children, marginalisation of the poor, suppression of the unborn in the maternal womb or their use for experimentation.

On the previous night, the Basilica of St. Peter was scheduled to close at 6:00 p.m. but the church remained open until the last pilgrim had passed through the Holy Doors at about 2:20 a.m. on 6 January.

On this occasion, the Pope signed his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte (At the beginning of the new millennium) which outlines the priorities of the Church for the 21st century and beyond.

Early on, the Vatican had a disappointment because the Waldenses, the only large Protestant religion in Italy, refused to participate because of their dispute against the Jubilee indulgence.

Noting that the Biblical Jubilees involved the forgiveness of debts, the rock singer Bono, Quincy Jones, Willie Colón, Muhammad Ali, Bob Geldof among others supported Jubilee 2000 to increase awareness of the developing nations struggling under a possibly unpayable foreign debt.

The Italian group, Hands Off Cain (Nessuno tocchi Caino), took advantage of the Jubilee to call for an end to capital punishment around the world.

Whenever a country chose to commute a sentence or abolish the death penalty entirely, the group illuminated the Roman Colosseum for various numbers of days.