On his wheelchair, Pope Francis began the celebration of Christmas by opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, kicking off the 2025 Holy Year.
“The steps we now take are the steps of the whole church,” the pope said.
The Vatican issued a statement saying the 2025 jubilee “coincides with an anniversary which is significant for all Christians, the 1700th anniversary of the celebration of the first Ecumenical Council, the Council of Nicaea.”
“Entering through the Holy Door expresses the will to follow and be led by God’s Only-Begotten Son. It is a manifestation of the faith that all Christians share in Jesus, the Eternal Word made flesh,” the statement says.
“While the Ordinary Jubilee is a celebration proper to the Catholic Church, the coincidence of the Jubilee with the anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council offers an opportunity to include brothers and sisters of other Churches and Christian Communions in its celebration,” it continues.
Security in Rome has been tightened by Italy after the attack at a German Christmas market. Thousands of people attended St. Peter’s to see the opening of the Holy Door.
In his homily during the evening Mass, Francis said, “If God can visit us, even when our hearts seem like a lowly manger, we can truly say: Hope is not dead; hope is alive and it embraces our lives forever!”
“For Christian hope is not a ‘happy ending’ which we passively await, but rather, a promise, the Lord’s promise, to be welcomed here and now in our world of suffering and sighs. It is a summons not to tarry, to be kept back by our old habits, or to wallow in mediocrity or laziness. Hope calls us – as Saint Augustine would say – to be upset with things that are wrong and to find the courage to change them. Hope calls us to become pilgrims in search of truth, dreamers who never tire, women and men open to being challenged by God’s dream of a new world where peace and justice reign,” the pope added.
Speaking about the Jubilee, Francis said it calls the people of the Church to spiritual renewal and commits them to the transformation of the world, “so that this year may truly become a time of jubilation.”
“A jubilee for our mother Earth, disfigured by profiteering; a time of jubilee for the poorer countries burdened beneath unfair debts; a time of jubilee for all those who are in bondage to forms of slavery old and new,” he said.
“All of us have received the gift and task of bringing hope wherever hope has been lost, lives broken, promises unkept, dreams shattered and hearts overwhelmed by adversity. We are called to bring hope to the weary who have no strength to carry on, the lonely oppressed by the bitterness of failure, and all those who are broken-hearted,” the pope said.
“To bring hope to the interminable, dreary days of prisoners, to the cold and dismal lodgings of the poor, and to all those places desecrated by war and violence,” he continued.
Francis said the Jubilee has now opened so that all people may receive the hope of the Gospel, hope of love and hope of forgiveness.
“Dear sister, dear brother, on this night the ‘holy door’ of God’s heart lies open before you. Jesus, God-with-us, is born for you, for us, for every man and woman. With him, joy flourishes; with him, life changes; with him, hope does not disappoint,” he said.
