ROME– Pope Francis inaugurated his Holy Year at Rome’s main prison on Thursday, bringing a message of hope to inmates and involving them in the Catholic Church’s quarter-century celebration, which is expected to attract an estimated 32 million pilgrims to Rome.
Francis got up from his wheelchair, knocked on the door of the Rebibbia prison chapel and crossed the threshold, repeating the gesture he had made at the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica two nights earlier early on Christmas Eve.
The opening of the basilica’s Holy Door officially kicked off the Jubilee Year, a church tradition dating back to 1300 that today occurs every 25 years and involves the faithful coming on pilgrimage to Rome .
“The first Holy Door I opened at Christmas in Saint-Pierre. I wanted the second to be here, in a prison,” Francis told the inmates before entering. “I wanted each of us here, inside and out, to have the opportunity to open the door of our hearts wide and understand that hope does not disappoint.”
Francis dedicated the 2025 Jubilee to hope and made it clear that prisoners would be an important part of it: The big final event of the Jubilee is a special Mass for prisoners at St. Peter’s on December 14, 2025. Francis has been serving for a long time a ministry in prison. an important part of his priestly vocation and has made several visits to Rebibbia since becoming pope in 2013, while also including prison visits in several of his trips abroad.
His message is always hopeful, believing that people serving prison sentences need something to hope more than anyone else. This is particularly true in Italy, where prison overcrowding and prisoner suicide are reaching record levels, according to the Antigone association, which monitors detention conditions.
According to Antigone’s 2024 report, 88 prisoners committed suicide in Italian prisons this year – more than any other year – and Italy’s prison population was 132% above system capacity.
In his homily, Francis suggested that prisoners view hope as an anchor attached to the ground and try to hold on tightly to the rope attached to it, even if it sometimes hurts their hands.
“Hold the rope of hope, hold the anchor,” Francis said. “Never let go.”
Francis’ outing to Rebibbia on a frosty morning was his last big event of the week after celebrating Christmas Eve Mass Tuesday evening at St. Peter’s Basilica and delivering his Christmas Day blessing from the loggia overlooking the square .
The 88-year-old pope, who often suffers from respiratory infections in winter, has a few days off before preparing for the New Year’s Eve and Mass the next day.
Francis’ year 2025 involves a dizzying schedule of jubilee events that will test his endurance, with special jubilee masses for all the major pilgrim groups celebrated during the year: teenagers, migrants, teachers and forces of order, among other things.
So far, he has only one overseas study trip planned: a visit to Turkey in May to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council.
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