Pope opens Vatican Holy Door, launches leitmotif of papacy

“This is the door of the Lord”.

“To pass through the Holy Door means to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone and goes out personally to encounter each of them”, the pope said during the mass. “Open to me the gates of justice”, the pontiff said.

As the sun broke through the clouds, heralding the start of the jubilee year, the pope bowed his head and remained still for several minutes in silent prayer.

In a rare outing, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI hugged his successor Francis before the holy door ritual, and was the first to follow him into the basilica.

Clutching a walking stick in his right-hand and looking extremely pale, Benedict, 88, was helped into the basilica on the arm of his assistant Georg Ganswein. The doors are only opened during jubilee years so that pilgrims can enter through them in order to gain the plenary indulgence during the jubilee year. “This pope says he is here to serve”.

“This has fallen at one of the worst possible moments in Rome’s history”, said Roberta Lombardi, a politician with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement.

In an innovation by Pope Francis, Holy Doors will also be opened this year at cathedrals, some churches and shrines around the world for those unable to make the pilgrimage to Rome.

Francis said the 1960s council had allowed the Church to emerge from self-enclosure.

Although Francis has not explicitly stated the reason he called the extraordinary jubilee without the traditional decades of planning, he has often worked to make the church seem inviting and accessible, particularly in the wake of scandals that have rocked the Vatican, including revelations of clerical sexual abuse.

Pope Francis on Tuesday is set to preside at Mass in the Vatican on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception with the opening of the “holy door” for the inauguration of the Holy Year of Mercy.

In preparation for visitors coming to Rome to celebrate the Jubilee, the Vatican has opened a new office on the main road into St. Peter’s Square to welcome pilgrims and to centralize services such as obtaining tickets to walk through the holy door at St. Peter’s.

Appropriately for the weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas, carpenters and other tradespeople have been kept busy in the run-up to the Jubilee Holy Year of Mercy, installing or ensuring that the Holy Doors, due to be opened at Roman Catholic cathedrals and churches across the world, are safe and functioning. He said it was wrong to think of God as a punisher, rather than a forgiver, of sin. “It’s an admission that we need God’s mercy”, Palma said in an interview.

In his homily, Francis urged the faithful to have courage in their spiritual and daily lives: “Let us set aside all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved”. Those involved have been selected for their ability to preach well, understand human frailty and ensure the confessional is not experienced “like a torture chamber” as Francis himself put it.

Francis’s push for a less judgemental, more understanding Church has encountered fierce resistance from traditionalists opposed to any relaxation of teaching on hot-button subjects such as homosexuality, divorce and unmarried cohabitation.

Last month’s terror attacks in Paris fueled concern that Islamic State may target the Vatican or pilgrims, some 30 million of whom are expected to flock to Rome for the jubilee year, which will run from Tuesday until November 2016 and focus on conversion and repentance.

He has, in effect, already begun the jubilee by opening the Holy Door of the Cathedral in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, during his recent trip to Africa.

In the past, worshippers travelled from all over the world to see the Holy Door and participate in one of a limited number of events where they were granted.