When Pope Francis opens the Jubilee Year 2025 by opening the ‘Holy Door’ at the beginning of Christmas Eve Mass, he will do so with Austrian participation, according to Kathpress: a girl from Welsh, Ludovica-Lavinia Piccioni (8), is one of ten children who accompany the Pope.
Ludovica, who will be accompanied by her parents, will be dressed in an Upper Austrian dirndl, and the other children involved from around the world will also wear their traditional costumes. The girl, a member of an emigrant family living in Rome, is currently preparing for her First Communion in the spring in the German-speaking parish of Santa Maria dell’Anima. The plan is for the children to carry flowers and, together with Pope Francis, hand them over to the wooden baby Jesus in the manger in St. Peter’s Basilica towards the end of the celebration. “When the invitation came, we didn’t hesitate for a second, because such an opportunity would never arise again,” Ludovica’s parents told Kathpress.
Beginning of the Holy Year
The opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica – one of four such church entrances in Rome – marks the beginning of the Holy Year 2025, marking the anniversary of another quarter of a century since the birth of Christ. For the Catholic festive year, which runs until January 6, 2026, the city of Rome is preparing for more than 30 million visitors from all over the world. The mega-event “Giubileo” (Jubilee) with its many ecclesiastical, cultural and social events and initiatives – many of which involve the Pope – has the motto “Pilgrim of Hope”. The Vatican’s events calendar already contains hundreds of offers.
There is complete indulgence
According to the Church’s teaching, passing through the Holy Door, which is also found in Rome’s other papal basilicas such as Santa Maria Maggiore, St. John Lateran and St. Paul Outside the Walls, brings the faithful a ‘plenary indulgence’. This means the experience of God’s special goodness, which frees one from the temporal punishment of sin—the aftereffects of sin that persist even after confession. Anyone who seeks an indulgence and fulfills the prescribed conditions such as valid confession, the Eucharist and certain prayers, can therefore be assured of God’s forbearance and hope of strength for a new beginning.
Source: Krone
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