Vatican City, December 8, 2015, 7:46p.m. – Pope Francis has opened the Holy Door here at St. Peter’s Basilica, inaugurating an “Extraordinary Jubilee Year” focusing on mercy, a key theme of his papacy.
The Holy Father greeted his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who was among the first to cross the threshold of the “Portal of Mercy” that symbolizes Christ, the door to forgiveness and salvation.
In his homily, Francis reminded Catholics that “mercy must come before judgment,” and that the Holy Door was an opportunity for Christians to rediscover God’s infinite forgiveness.
He recalled the Second Vatican Council that modernized the Church, saying it had also opened a “door” to a “true encounter between the Church and the men and women of our time.”
Marking the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Pope said the Virgin Mary’s conception without original sin expressed the “grandeur of God’s love.”
The 2015 Jubilee Year is “extraordinary” as popes usually proclaim jubilee years every 25 years. The last jubilee was 15 years ago during celebrations marking two millennia of Christianity.
In a papal bull issued last year, Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and ordered churches all over the world to receive confessions round the clock throughout the Jubilee. Special attention is to be given to those who wish to repent from the sin of abortion.
The Jubilee plenary indulgence may be obtained by making a pilgrimage to the Holy Door at designated churches, going to confession, receiving Holy Communion, and praying for the Pope and his intentions.
Plenary indulgence, according to Catholic belief, removes the temporal punishment attached to sin.
