Two days after opening the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica to inaugurate the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis will travel to a Rome prison to open a Holy Door as a “tangible sign of the message of hope” for people in prisons around the world. Source: CNS.
On December 26, the Pope will go to Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, “a symbol of all the prisons dispersed throughout the world,” to deliver a message of hope to prisoners, the chief organiser of the Holy Year 2025, Archbishop Rino Fisichella ,announced at a news conference yesterday.
Pope Francis will open the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica on December 24.
He will then open the Holy Doors at the major basilicas of St John Lateran on December 29, St Mary Major on January 1 and St Paul Outside the Walls on January 5.
In his “bull of indiction,” the document formally proclaiming the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis wrote that during the Holy Year he will have close to his heart “prisoners who, deprived of their freedom, feel daily the harshness of detention and its restrictions, lack of affection and, in more than a few cases, lack of respect for their persons”.
In the document, the Pope also called on governments to “undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope” for incarcerated persons during the Holy Year, such as expanding forms of amnesty and social reintegration programs.
Archbishop Fisichella said the Vatican had signed an agreement with Italy’s minister of justice and the government commissioner for Rome to implement reintegration programs for incarcerated individuals by involving their participation in activities during the Jubilee Year.
Archbishop Fisichella also unveiled the official mascot of the Holy Year 2025: “Luce” (Italian for light), a cartoon pilgrim dressed in a yellow raincoat, mud-stained boots, wearing a missionary cross and holding a pilgrim’s staff.
Luce’s glowing eyes feature the shape of scallop shells, a traditional symbol of pilgrimage and hope.
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Pope to open Holy Door at Rome prison at beginning of Jubilee 2025 (By Justin McLellan, CNS)
