This past December 24, Pope Frances inaugurated the Jubilee Year 2025 by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Indeed, to begin the Jubilee, the four Holy Doors located in Rome were opened.
On January 3, the Pope reflected:
For the Church, 2025 is a Jubilee year: according to tradition, every twenty-five years is a Jubilee year. And this Jubilee has a theme, a motto… Let us repeat it together: “Pilgrims of hope.” …
The word “pilgrim” makes us think about walking, so I would like to wish for you always to be people on the move. At every age: children, young people, adults, seniors, always walking, never still, never already there, always with the desire to go ahead.
But the “pilgrim” is one who not only walks, but has a destination, and a particular destination: the pilgrim’s destination is a holy place, which attracts him, which motivates the journey, which sustains him in his fatigue. In the case of the Jubilee, the destination is a door. Curious, isn’t it? The Holy Door. Of course it is a symbol: The Holy Door represents Jesus Christ, His Mystery of salvation, which allows us to enter into new life, free from the slavery of sin, free to love and serve God and neighbor.
Following tradition, the door at the Basilica of St. John Lateran was opened on December 29, 2024, the one at the Basilica of St. Mary Major on January 1, 2025, and the one at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on Sunday, January 5, 2025.
The Pope also added a Holy Door at the chapel in Rebibbia Prison as a symbol of his closeness to prisoners around the world.
The doors are open, and the Jubilee is well underway!
And today we celebrate...