Gate passed – Pope opens Holy Year – with help from Upper Austria

This year’s Mass in Rome also marked the start of the so-called Holy Year, which the Catholic Church celebrates every 25 years. A Welsh girl, eight-year-old Ludovica Lavinia Piccioni, was one of ten children who accompanied the Pope at the opening of the Holy Door.

Girl from Austria in traditional costume
Ludovica was dressed in an Upper Austrian dirndl, and the other children involved from all over the world also wore their traditional costumes. Then the Pope celebrated Christmas.

Tens of thousands welcome ‘Jubilee’ on St. Peter’s Square
Normally, the Catholic Church celebrates a Holy Year, also known as the Jubilee, every 25 years. 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. After a holy year, the gate is closed again, sealed and bricked up from the inside. This anniversary year lasts a few days longer than a regular calendar year: it initially starts on December 24, continues until 2025 and officially ends on January 6, 2026.

About 8,000 people came to St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of believers gathered in St. Peter’s Square. A billion people around the world were able to watch the ceremony live on television.

Some impressions of the celebrations in Rome:

Rome is preparing for 30 million visitors
For the Catholic festive year, the city of Rome prepares 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.

“Pleasant treat” for believers
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.

Strict anti-terror measures taken in Rome
After the attack in Magdeburg, the Italian Interior Ministry has tightened anti-terror controls in Rome and around the Vatican. The police want to make more use of sniffer dogs and video systems to ensure that the festivities run smoothly. Thousands of carabinieri, police officers and soldiers will be deployed in Rome to control metro stations, train stations and airports.

Seven activists arrested
Seven activists from the environmental movement ‘Debt for Climate’ were arrested during checks on the occasion of the opening of the anniversary. There were three women and four men between the ages of 20 and 40. They come from Germany, the US and Belgium. They were stopped by police officers with an inflatable fence.

Preparations have been in full swing in recent months. Rome got dressed and picked up what had been lying around for a long time. The city sank into construction chaos: at least half of the dilapidated infrastructure had to be repaired and famous sights such as the Trevi Fountain or the St. Angel Bridge were quickly restored.