To begin the Jubilee of Hope, Pope Francis will be present at the four papal basilicas of Rome to open the Holy Doors. Following tradition, the first will be St Peter’s Basilica.
Leonardo Sapienza, Regent of Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, announced the Holy Door of the Basilica of St Peter will be opened on 24 December 2024 inaugurating the Ordinary Jubilee.
The next Holy Door to be opened will be at St John Lateran on 29 December and the first day of 2025 will see Pope Francis open the Holy Door at St Mary Major. The last one to be opened will be at St Paul Outside the Wall on 5 January.
The only Holy Doors that will be opened during this Jubilee will be those of Rome. The Vatican says that the doors each diocese opened in 2015 were different because it was an extraordinary Jubilee—they were the so-called “Doors of Mercy.”
“The pope’s decision to open the Holy Doors—they were not Holy Doors, they were called “Doors of Mercy” because the pope wanted to signal that mercy reaches everyone,” explained Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Pro-Prefect of Dicastery for Evangelisation.
“He did not exclude anyone and, therefore, in all dioceses, it was possible to pass through the Door of Mercy.”
In addition to the four major basilicas, another has been added by the pope’s request. It will be that of a prison, although it is not yet known which one. It is one of the many gestures the pope wants to make to prisoners.
Rome will have 12 jubilee churches. One of them is St James and Montserrat, known as the “church of the Spaniards.” Another is San Salvatore in Lauro, where the relics of two beloved saints are located: St Jude Thaddeus and Padre Pio.
These churches are intended to be meeting places for pilgrims. They will also hold reconciliation and catechesis.
This Jubilee period will end on 6 January 2026. After that day, an estimated 32 million pilgrims will have crossed the Holy Doors of the Eternal City.