Pope Francis has launched a special jubilee year for Roman Catholics during a ceremony on Christmas Eve at the Vatican.
The Pope marked the start of the jubilee by opening the usually bricked-up Holy Door at St Peter's Basilica.
Jubilees take place only once every 25 years, and more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to head to Rome to pass through the door and seek forgiveness for their sins.
The significance of the Holy Door
The Holy Door is deemed 'Holy' since it calls all those who enter through it to walk in the holiness of life.
In the footsteps of the Pope, during the singing of the Jubilee hymn, representatives of the entire People of God crossed its threshold, as a prelude to the countless pilgrims of hope from every country and language who will visit St. Peter's Basilica and celebrate the mysteries of salvation during the Holy Year.
The origins
The origin of the custom goes back to Pope Martin V who, for the Extraordinary Jubilee of 1423, opened a Holy Door to enter the Lateran Basilica. In St. Peter's, it was first used for the Jubilee of 1450.
Its location, the rear wall of the chapel dedicated by Pope John VII to the Mother of God, corresponds to a place where it is found today.
Pope Alexander VI, in 1500, endowed this symbol of the opening of the Jubilee with a ritual that remained virtually unchanged over the centuries, until the turn of the millennium, when in the year 2000, the removal of the former brick wall was replaced by the ceremonial opening of the bronze Door already in 1983.
The last opening of the Holy Door for an Ordinary Jubilee was when Pope St. John Paul II had done so in the Year 2000. Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in 2015 for his 2016 Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.
Opening of Holy Doors
On Christmas Day, Pope Francis will deliver his Urbi et Orbi message to the people of the city of Rome and the world from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica at noon.
On 26 December, for the first time in the Jubilee tradition, Pope Francis will open a fifth sacred portal in a Roman prison, a gesture of hope that shows his ongoing closeness to detainees.
On Sunday, 29 December, the Pope will open the Holy Door of his cathedral, Saint John Lateran, which on 9 November this year celebrated the 1700th anniversary of its dedication.
Then, on 1 January 2025, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major will be opened.
Lastly, Sunday, 5 January 2025, will mark the opening of the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.
These last three Holy Doors will be closed on Sunday, 28 December 2025.
