Pope opens jubilee year expected to bring millions of visitors to Rome | religion

Pope Francis opened the “Holy Door” of St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve, inaugurating the anniversary year of Catholic celebrations that will attract more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome.

The 88-year-old pope, recently suffering from a cold, was pushed in a wheelchair to the huge, ornate bronze door and knocked on it before the door opened.

In a ceremony watched on screens by thousands of worshipers outside St. Peter’s Square, the Argentine pope walked through the door, followed by a procession as the Vatican Basilica’s bells rang.

Over the next 12 months, Catholic pilgrims will traditionally walk through the door, which is normally bricked up, and enjoy a “plenary indulgence,” a type of forgiveness for their sins.

Pope Francis then led the Christmas Eve mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, in which he once again addressed the victims of the war. “We think of wars, of children shot with machine guns, of bombs on schools and hospitals,” he said in his sermon.

The pope drew an angry response from Israel over the weekend for condemning the “cruelty” of Israeli attacks in Gaza that killed children. He was supposed to deliver his traditional Christmas blessing Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) on Wednesday afternoon.

Around 700 security forces are deployed in the Vatican and Rome for the anniversary celebrations. After the car attack on a Christmas market in Germany on Friday, the measures were tightened even further.

Large swaths of Rome have also been given a facelift in preparation, with monuments such as the Trevi Fountain and Bridge of Angels tidied up and streets redesigned to improve traffic flow.

Many residents have wondered how the Eternal City – where major attractions are already overcrowded and public transport unreliable – will cope with millions more visitors next year.

Important anniversary projects were only completed in the last few days after months of work that turned large parts of the city into a construction site.

At the inauguration of a new road tunnel in Piazza Pia next to the Vatican, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Monday that it would take a “small civil miracle” to complete the project on time.

Over the next few days, holy doors will be opened in Rome’s three major basilicas and in Catholic churches around the world.

On Thursday, Pope Francis will open a holy door at Rome’s Rebibbia prison and preside over a mass to show his support for inmates.

Organized by the church every 25 years, the anniversary is intended to be a time of reflection and penance and is marked by a long list of cultural and religious events, from trade fairs to exhibitions, conferences and concerts.

“It’s my first time in Rome and being here in the Vatican I already feel blessed,” said Lisbeth Dembele, a 52-year-old French tourist who previously visited St. Peter’s Square.

The anniversary, which this year has the motto “Pilgrims of Hope,” is aimed at the nearly 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, but also aims to reach a broader audience.

Since the first such event in 1300, initiated by Pope Boniface VIII, traditions have evolved. This year, the Vatican has provided pilgrims with online registration and multilingual phone apps to navigate the events.

Jubilee 2025 also has a mascot named Luce (“Light” in Latin), which is inspired by Japanese anime cartoons. The event will bring groups from all over the world to Rome over the course of 2025, from athletes and business people to migrants, artists and young people.

Among the groups registered on the official website is the Italian LGBTQ group La Tenda di Gionata, which reflects the pope’s call for the church to be open to all.

In his homily, the pope said the anniversary was a time of “spiritual renewal” and hope, including for “our Mother Earth, distorted by greed for profit” and “for the poorer countries burdened by unjustified debts.”

In addition to the regular anniversaries every 25 years, the church has organized extraordinary anniversaries, most recently in 2016. The next one will take place in 2033 to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.