Pope closes the door on Millennium

Pope John Paul has closed the Holy Door of St Peter's Basilica in Rome, formally ending the Roman Catholic Church's year-long millennium celebrations.

The door will be bricked up for the next twenty-five years.

In the last few days, thousands of pilgrims have been queuing up to walk through the heavy bronze door.

Traditional Catholics believe that passage through the door brings them closer to eternal life.

The Pope is also issuing today new moral guidelines at the start of the third Christian millennium. The Vatican says more than twenty-five-million people have visited Rome during the millennium celebrations, about eight-million of whom have been received by the Pope.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service