History of the Holy Years through Mass Media (1900–2015)

As soon as Jubilees, or Holy Years, appeared on the 14th century historical stage, they became the papal monarchy’s most relevant political and economic instruments. Since the 20th century, jubilee celebrations have also proved to be extraordinary moments of confrontation, though not always easy or unambiguous, between the papacy and the rapidly developing mass audiovisual media. On the one hand, the jubilees have served as catalysts for attention towards the Vatican, amplifying the traditional reasons behind the attraction of the Eternal City as a destination for imposing pilgrimages and as a theater for spectacular liturgical ceremonies. On the other hand, the Holy Years have provided the opportunity for the Holy See to experiment through audiovisual media with new ways of interpreting and unfolding the universal mission of the papacy, finally freed from temporal concerns.

This volume aims to reconstruct this complex and little-investigated connection by drawing on a variety of sources from the Vatican archives as well as little-known audiovisual sources. Focusing on one hundred years of history (1900–2015), the events of both ordinary and extraordinary jubilees are analyzed from the perspective of each of the audiovisual mass media: cinema, radio, and television.