Stan writes:

> I certainly couldn't find any such proclamation at any Vatican web page.
>
>  I did find some proof that the Vatican is aware of when the millennium
> starts.
>  Check out
>
>  http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_eng/static/caleng.html

Actually, what the Vatican did was split the difference and call *all* of
2000 a "Holy Year", essentially in the same way that during a baby's first
year, the baby isn't declared to be 1 year old, but he isn't zero either. In
that same regard, a child, when he turns 10, *has* lived through his first
decade at exactly the point at which the odometer turns up a new zero, not
when the clock strikes 11.

For a relatively authoritative view, see the video of Stephen J. Gould's
interview on the today show at:

     http://msnbc.msn.com/news/243465.asp

Gould is a prolific author and evolutionary biologist/historian of science at
Harvard (although he recently moved back to New York City). He and I are
nearly of identical ages and share some interests, although I've only met and
talked with him one time, while we ate lunch together in Tucson about 15
years ago, which was just about the time he was beginning to become well
known.

Wirt Atmar