Pope Francis opens Holy Door to begin Jubilee Year
In a ceremony held at the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis formally opened the 2025 Jubilee Year and then celebrated the 1st Mass of Christmas.
VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — The Ordinary Jubilee of 2025 has officially begun with the solemn opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica this evening.
Watched by a multitude of cameras and thousands of viewers around the world, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door at the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica December 24, in a ceremony which took place directly before the ‘midnight’ Mass of Christmas celebrated inside the Basilica.
Flanked by members of the College of Cardinals, members of the Papal Household, civil dignitaries and ecumenical delegates, Francis pushed open the door which has remained sealed closed since the end of the extraordinary Jubilee in late 2016.
{The Vatican issued a clarification note to say that though the ecumenical delegates walked through the Holy Door, “it should not be understood as an attempt to associate them with any elements of the Jubilee, such as the Jubilee Indulgence, which are not consonant with the practices of their respective communities.”
“Rather,” the note added, “their crossing the threshold of the Holy Door is a visible sign of the faith that all Christians share in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh – the faith which we profess in the Nicene Creed – and of our common belief that the same Jesus is the Door through which we enter into life.”}
With the choir singing Psalm 121 in Latin, the ceremony of the door’s opening also included the singing of the Gospel from St. John (10: 7-10), and a responsary sung also by the choir:
“This is the Lord’s own gate, where the upright enter. I enter your house, O Lord. I bow down before your holy temple. Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will enter and thank the Lord.”
The Collect prayed during the ceremony shortly before the Gospel and subsequent opening of the Jubilee door, read:
O Christ, bright star of the morning, incarnation of infinite love, long awaited salvation, sole hope of the world, illumine our hearts with your radiant splendour. In this season of grace and reconciliation grant that we may put our trust in your mercy alone and discover once more the way that leads to the Fa-ther. Open our souls to the working of the Holy Spirit, that he may soften the hardness of our hearts, that enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries may join hands, and peoples seek to meet together. Grant that the Church may bear faithful witness to your love and may shine forth as a vivid sign of the blessed hope of your Kingdom.
After his knocking upon the Holy Door, it was opened to Francis from the inside: he then passed through in his wheelchair. Notably in recent days he had walked more than normal at some events – including the Christmas greetings to the Roman Curia and the employees of the Vatican City State – but then complained of accentuated breathing issues in the days that followed. He also moved his Sunday Angelus inside on December 22, explaining it was a precautionary measure recommended by his doctors.
With the bells ringing out from the Basilica, those assembled behind the Pope followed him into the Basilica for the commencement of the first Mass of Christmas.
Pope Francis’ official message for the Jubilee year, Spes non confundit {Hope does not disappoint} was issued May 9. Closing his written message for the Jubilee year – which ordinarily takes place every 25 years – Francis expressed the desire for Hope to be the predominant theme of the Jubilee":
“The coming Jubilee will thus be a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God. May it help us to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation. May the witness of believers be for our world a leaven of authentic hope, a harbinger of new heavens and a new earth (cf. 2 Pet 3:13), where men and women will dwell in justice and harmony, in joyful expectation of the fulfilment of the Lord’s promises.
Let us even now be drawn to this hope! Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it. May the way we live our lives say to them in so many words: “Hope in the Lord! Hold firm, take heart and hope in the Lord!” (Ps 27:14). May the power of hope fill our days, as we await with confidence the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory, now and forever.
During the Jubilee Year, the customary practice for Catholics is to make a pilgrimage to Rome and once there, to pass through one of the four holy doors found at each of the four papal basilicas in the Eternal City.
By passing through the Jubilee doors, pilgrims can gain the Jubilee indulgence { a plenary indulgence} in Rome by visiting one of the four papal basilicas – St. Peter’s (Vatican), St. John Lateran, St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major.
Plenary indulgences can be gained during the Jubilee by fulfilling the normal conditions:
Being “truly repentant” and having complete detachment from sin.
Receiving Confession and Holy Communion.
Praying for the customary intentions of the Pope, normally with an Our Father, Hail Mary, or the Creed.
According to the enchiridion of indulgences, these conditions may be fulfilled “several days” before or after the specific act earning the indulgence – such as is laid out below. However, while one Confession suffices for multiple plenary indulgences, the Church notes that Holy Communion and prayers for the Pontiff must be made for each particular plenary indulgence.
The plenary indulgence may be applied to the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and the Holy See’s norms state that, exceptionally, two indulgences can be gained on the same day if they are applied to the Holy Souls.
For full details of the various manners to gain an indulgence during the Jubilee, and also which doors have been designated as sites of pilgrimage in Rome, the Holy Land and further afield in various countries, see an analysis here.
For those unable to make a pilgrimage abroad, dioceses have also been asked by the Vatican to establish Holy Doors in various churches around their dioceses.
With the beginning of the Holy Year, and also the start of the great feast of Christmas, PerMariam wishes all its readers a very Merry and Blessed Christmas!
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