Vatican City. Pope Francis has opened the ‘Holy Door’ of St. Peter’s Basilica on the eve of Christmas to mark the start of the ‘Jubilee Year-2025’ of the Catholic celebration. In the ‘jubilee year’, which is considered a special year of sin, debt and universal forgiveness, there is a trend in Christian communities or countries of freeing slaves and prisoners and forgiving debts. They believe this year to be a special year of God’s mercy.
The 88-year-old Pope, who was recently suffering from a cold, was taken to the huge brass door in a wheelchair, and he knocked on the door and it opened. Opening the door is also associated with getting rid of sin or debt.
In a ceremony outside St Peter’s Square watched on a screen by thousands of worshipers, the Argentine cleric entered the gates and joined the procession. The bells of the Vatican basilica then rang.
For the next 12 months, Catholic pilgrims will pass through the gate of Ita. Traditionally, entering or being able to enter through a bronze door is religiously seen as an opportunity for a person to receive a special benefit (forgiveness of their sins).
After the holy procession, Pope Francis presided over a Christmas Eve mass in St. Peter’s. “We are saddened by the sounds of machine guns and explosions in war, as well as by the attacks on schools and hospitals,” he said, recalling the world’s wars throughout the year.
There was an angry reaction from the Israeli community to the Pope who condemned the “cruelty” of the Israeli attack on Gaza. He is scheduled to deliver his traditional Christmas Day blessing, Urbi et Orbi (The City and the World), on Wednesday at noon.
Around 700 security personnel have been mobilized for Jubilee celebrations in the Vatican and Rome following Friday’s car attack on a German Christmas market. Many parts of Rome have been decorated for Christmas, monuments such as the Trevi Fountain and Ponte Sant’Angelo have been cleaned and notices have been issued to manage traffic. Building and other construction work has been carried out in many parts of the city throughout the year. Inaugurating a new road tunnel in Piazza Pia next to the Vatican on Monday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said it had been a “small civic miracle” to get the project completed on time.
In the next few days, the holy doors will be opened in the three major basilicas of Rome and Catholic churches around the world. Pope Francis will open the sacred doors of Rome’s Rebbia prison on Thursday and preside over a mass prayer meeting in support of the prisoners. Agency