Roman Catholic Church approves licences for Millennium 2000 logo

The Roman Catholic church is selling licences to global companies for a Millennium 2000 logo, which will be approved by the Pope.

The pontiff will choose a winning design next month, licensed by the Roman Catholic Church and administered by the Jubilee Committee in Rome.

The Jubilee Committee, an international organisation comprising different religious groups, says services and projects associated with the celebration and bearing the logo will have a “mark of guarantee”. “They’ll certainly be of a very high standard,” adds a spokesman.

However, he says the Church’s interest and the licensed logo were attempts to reduce commercialism associated with the turn of the century and its spiritual relevance in celebrating 2000 years since Christ’s birth.

Several UK groups planning events for the millennium are understood to have applied to the Jubilee Committee already and were told the Roman Catholic Church held the rights to the millennium logo.

The Jubilee Committee spokes-man was unable to comment on other licensing rights the Catholic church holds for the millennium or whether it would make any financial gains from the logo.

The Millennium Commission in the UK says it will have its own logo for its own exclusive use, but says it has been in talks with different religions about the involvement of the church.