Blessing of holy door service held at Cathedral

Cupich’s opening of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Holy Door follows Pope Francis, who earlier Sunday pushed open the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica, marking the beginning of the Holy Year of Mercy.

The Diocese of Laoag on Sunday (December 13) held the “Apertura de la Puerta Santa” (Opening of the Holy Door) for the Jubilee Year of Mercy at the St. William’s Cathedral in Laoag City.

The Wilmington diocese, which serves 233,000 Catholics in 57 parishes and 18 missions in DE and the nine counties of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, opened eight Holy Doors, one in each deanery, on Sunday. The Catholic Church calls for a year of jubilee every 25 or 50 years, a tradition upheld by the Church for hundreds of years.

Francis launched the 12-month jubilee to emphasize what has become the leitmotif of his papacy: showing the merciful and welcoming side of a Catholic Church more often known for moralizing and casting judgment. Today as we pass through the Holy Door, we also remember another door, which fifty years ago the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council opened to the world. During this year So many spiritual renewal programs will be undertaken he added to experience and to let experience God the Father’s Mercy.

“It shows that God’s mercy is greater than all the violence that is out there”, Jacobs said.