December 30, 2024 // National

Pope Opens Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, Launching ‘Jubilee of Hope’

Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In the quiet of Christmas Eve, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, launching what he called a “Jubilee of Hope.”

As the doors opened, the bells of the basilica began to peal.

After the reading of a brief passage from the Gospel of John in which Jesus describes Himself as “the door,” Pope Francis briefly left the atrium of the basilica, creating some confusion. But when the cardinals in the front row sat down, the others did likewise.

Three minutes later, the pope returned. He was pushed in his wheelchair up the ramp to the Holy Door. In silence, he raised himself from the chair to knock five times, and aides inside slowly opened the door, which had been framed in a garland of green pine branches, decorated with red roses and gold pinecones.

Opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica has been a fixture of the Catholic Church’s celebration of jubilee years since the Holy Year 1450, Vatican officials said.

Pope Francis chose “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme for the Holy Year 2025, which began on Tuesday, December 24, and will run through January 6, 2026.

The rite of opening the decorated bronze door began inside the basilica with the reading in different languages of biblical passages prophesying the birth of the savior, “who brings His kingdom of peace into our world,” as the lector explained.

Then, to emphasize how the birth of Jesus “proclaims the dawn of hope in our world,” the Gospel of St. Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus was proclaimed.

Introduced with a blare of trumpets, the choir sang, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.”

“The steps we now take are the steps of the whole Church, a pilgrim in the world and a witness of peace,” the pope told the assembled cardinals, bishops, ecumenical guests, and lay faithful in the atrium of the basilica.

“Holding fast to Christ, the rock of our salvation, enlightened by His word and renewed by His grace,” the pope continued, “may we cross the threshold of this holy temple and so enter into a season of mercy and forgiveness in which every man and woman may encounter and embrace the path of hope, which does not disappoint.”

Echoing the biblical jubilee themes of reconciliation and forgiveness, Pope Francis prayed that the Holy Spirit would soften hardened hearts so that “enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries may join hands, and people seek to meet together.”

“Grant that the Church may bear faithful witness to your love and may shine forth as a vital sign of the blessed hope of your kingdom,” he prayed.

Normally the Holy Door, to the right of the basilica’s center doors, remains sealed with bricks, a symbolic reminder of the barrier of sin between people and God. The 16 panels on the bronze doors illustrate key moments in salvation history, including the fall of Adam and Eve, the annunciation of Jesus’ birth, Christ presented as the shepherd rescuing a lost sheep, the Crucifixion, and the risen Jesus appearing to the disciples.

One part of the Holy Year is the Church’s offering of indulgences to the faithful. The Church teaches that Christ and the saints have accumulated a treasure of merits that other believers – who are prayerful and repentant – can draw upon to reduce or erase the punishment they are due because of sins they have committed. Making a pilgrimage, going to confession, receiving Communion, and offering prayers to receive an indulgence is a key part of the Holy Year.

Two days later, on Thursday, December 26, the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Pope Francis knocked on the door of the church in Rome’s Rebibbia prison complex and walked across its threshold.

After reciting a formal prayer before opening the prison’s Holy Door, the pope took the microphone back to explain that he had inaugurated the Holy Year 2025 by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

“I wanted the second Holy Door to be the one here, at a prison,” he said.

During his homily, Pope Francis spoke directly to the inmates. He told them that all Christians need to remind themselves that “hope does not disappoint, it never disappoints. I need to think about this, too, because in life’s difficult moments, one thinks that everything is over, that nothing can be resolved. But hope never disappoints.”

“I like to think of hope being like an anchor on the shore, and we, holding the rope, are there, safe because our hope is like an anchor” hooked into the earth. “This is the message I want to give all of us, including myself: Don’t lose hope.”