To help people who cannot travel to Rome but want to pray at the tomb of St Peter and cross the threshold of the Holy Door, St Peter’s Basilica is installing new webcams. Source: CNS.
Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, communications director for the basilica, said on Monday that Pope Francis will inaugurate the new webcams at the tomb of St Peter and on the Holy Door on December 2.
Some 30 million pilgrims and visitors are expected to pass through the Holy Door during the Jubilee Year that opens on Christmas Eve and closes on January 6, 2026, Fr Fortunato said.
The pilgrimage, he said, will be an experience “that billions of people will be able to share remotely through a webcam positioned at the tomb of St Peter to approach the mystery of the fisherman who had himself crucified upside down to be able to stand with his head held high before his Lord, giving rise to a pilgrimage that has continued uninterrupted for two millennia.”
Fr Fortunato also presented the first edition of Piazza San Pietro, a new magazine he is directing on behalf of the basilica.
It is named after St Peter’s Square, he said, because the magazine hopes to be a place of welcome and encounter like the square is.
A unique feature of the magazine, which will be available in Italian, Spanish and English, is that Pope Francis will respond to a letter from a reader each month, Fr Fortunato said.
Letters can be sent to [email protected] for consideration, he said.
In the December issue, Pope Francis responds to Olivia, a grandmother in Bergamo, Italy, who wonders what she should do about her five-year-old granddaughter who has not been baptised.
Pope Francis recommended that Olivia and her husband, “with hope, meekness and charity,” talk to their daughter and her husband, but not push the idea of having their daughter baptised.
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St Peter’s Basilica launches magazine, installs new webcams (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
