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 | Welcoming Year 2000: Pope John Paul II blesses the faithful as he arrives on a mobile 'chariot' in the St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican to celebrate the Te Deum prayer, Friday, December 31, 1999. At right, the bronze statue of St. Peter. The Pope, in an unprecedented midnight appearence in his apartment window overlooking St. Peter's Square, will bless faithful for the new millennium. click to open  |  | Fireworks light up the sky over the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica at the start of a new millennium January 1. 79-year-old Pope John Paul II, who is ful?lling a personal dream of his papacy by surviving to lead his Church across the threshold of 2000, said he wished that 2000 would be a year of joy and peace. click to open |  | Welcoming Year 2000: Italian tourists take in the misty firstst dawn of the new millennium over the illuminated dome of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2000, after a night of ringing in the new year. Some 150,000 people attended a rock concert in St. Peter's Square on New Year's Eve and received the Papal blessing at midnight. click to open |  | Christmas of 1999: St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in Christendom, shines with a new illumination system just days before the final Christmas of the 20th century late Tuesday, Dec 21st, 1999. Pope John Paul II will launch the Holy Year in a solemn ceremony on Christmas Eve by opening the Holy Door. Some 27 million pilgrims are expected in Rome for the special Jubilee 2000 year. click to open |
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