BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Thursday, December 31

Second from left: Icon showing Emperor Constantine and Pope Sylvester I.
ST. SYLVESTER (Pope Sylvester I, 314-335
For one of the longest-serving Popes, who served during the reign of Emperor Constantine, so crucial to the survival and propagation of
Christianity in antiquity, very little is known about Sylvester as a person, not even when he was born, though it is known his father was
a Roman native. During his time, the Church emerged from the catacombs, the great basilicas Saint John Lateran, Saint Peter’s and
others were built, and the Council of Nicaea was held [which dealt with the Arian heresy once and for all] - all of them made possible
because of the Emperor. But it has been noted that only a great and wise Pope could have served for almost a quarter-century in these
circumstances, helping to build the Church spiritually and materially in many fundamental ways. His feast falls on the seventh day
of Christmas. In the German-speaking countries, New Year's Eve is popularly called Silvesterabend, and celebrations greeting the New
Year are called St. Sylvester parties.



OR today.

Illustration: Pierre Lombard, miniature from a 12th-cent. manuscript.
At the General Audience, the Pope speaks on the theologian Pierre Lombard and expresses his wish for
'A new year of friendship with Christ in order to be men of peace'
Other Page 1 stories: The Pope's condolences on the death of the emeritus archbishop of Tokyo, with a substantial
obituary inside; a commentary about the decade it calls 'nameless, which starts out calling it the 'noughties' (after
'nought' or zero), implying it was empty, and ends up being a little essay on Obama as the emblem of the decade
(though the writer certainly does not think he is 'empty') - singularly remarkable in that the essay makes no reference
at all to events within the Church during the decade - which included the Great Jubilee of 2000 and an epochal papal
transition - but I have stopped being nonplussed by the erratic editorial judgments prevailing at OR. Among the inside-
page stories: 37 Catholic pastoral workers (including 30 priests) were killed around the world in 2009 - almost double
last year's toll and the highest in 10 years.


THE POPE'S DAY

Vespers today and Thanksgiving Te Deum for 2009
Eve of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
5:30 p.m., St. Peter's Basilica


In just a few hours, it will be 2010 in the Southern Hemisphere!