By Isabella Piro
“Today, by closing the Holy Door, we raise to the Father a hymn of thanksgiving for all the signs of His love for us, while we keep in our hearts the awareness and hope that His embrace of mercy and peace remains open to all peoples,” said Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Vicar General of Rome and Archpriest of the Basilica of St John Lateran.
The Cardinal’s prayer echoed in the atrium of the Basilica on the morning of Saturday, Dec 27, as he presided over the solemn rite of the closing of its Holy Door.
The cardinal ascended the steps in silence, then knelt on the threshold in prayer, before rising and closing the large door, while he bowed his head in a sign of reverence. Many faithful then approach the threshold and placed their hands upon it in a gesture of prayer and recollection.
Bringing the Lord through the streets of Rome
The same door had been opened on Dec 29, 2024, feast of the Holy Family. It’s closure instead occurred on the feast of St John, Apostle and Evangelist, “the disciple who became Jesus’ closest friend,” the cardinal emphasized during the Mass that followed the rite of the closing of the Holy Door.
John had “walked with Jesus, listened to His voice, even the wordless one of His heart, resting his ear on His chest,” the Vicar of Rome continued.
Following John’s example, the faithful present—including the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri; and the Prefect, Lamberto Giannini—are invited to be “ministers of God’s mercy,” allowing the Lord “to find fulfillment in a city in which many have lost hope,” the Cardinal said.
The weight of absence
Cardinal Reina warned that one cannot profess the Christian faith without being concerned for those who, “because of the burdens they carry, the pain they endure, the injustices they suffer,” are unable to perceive anything other than absence.
He described this absence in all its facets: the lack “of solidarity in the gap between periphery and centre; of attention to economic and existential miseries; of fraternity, whereby we resign ourselves, even in the presbytery, to remaining alone or leaving one another alone. The absence in which families fall apart, bonds grow fragile, generations clash, and addictions become chains”; the lack of “justice that does not live up to the highest vocation of politics which is to remove obstacles so that everyone may have equal opportunity to fulfil themselves, give shape to their dreams, substance to their dignity, through work and fair wages, having a home, and being defended and cared for in their fragility.”
Overcoming inertia to change the city
The hearts of many, the cardinal continued, are weighed down by the deprivation “of vision and thought at a time when passions have become saddened, judgments have become sumary, information has lost contact with the search for truth, and culture no longer has credible teachers.”
Not to mention “the absence of peace in a world where the logic of the strongest prevails,” he emphasized. All this lack of prophecy “renders God mute,” he said urging the faithful to oppose “every form of inertia, so that the Lord may be encountered” and Rome may be transfigured, in all its “social and existential” places.
Recognizing everyone as brothers and sisters
This “is the hope that moved the countless pilgrims who left on our streets the footprints of steps weighed down by the burdens pressing on their hearts” and who imprinted on the Holy Door their touch seeking God and His mercy, Cardinal Reina highlighted.
He insisted that this is the teaching the Jubilee leaves to every believer: “A widespread sacrament of the closeness of the God of surprises,” because even if the Holy Door is now closed, “the Risen One passes through it and never tires of knocking, to offer and to find mercy.”
After all, the Cardinal underlined, at the end of time “we will be judged by Love,” by our ability to recognize everyone as brothers and sisters, including “those we consider enemies.”
The Church of Rome as a laboratory of synodality
In the “new time” that now begins for the Diocese of Rome, the Cardinal Vicar invited all to unite “prayers and efforts so as to be a place that reveals the presence of the Lord, that bears witness to His closeness by becoming close to one another, without forgetting anyone.”
He emphasized – quoting Pope Leo XIV’s address to the Diocese of Rome on Sep 19 – that only in this way will the Church and the city be able to become a “laboratory of synodality capable of bringing the Gospel to life.”
Cardinal Reina thanks all those who worked for the Jubilee
Before imparting the solemn final blessing, Cardinal Reina thanked all those who worked during the Jubilee Year. He recalled the closeness of the Pope and greeted Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization and organizer of the Jubilee, who was present at the Mass.
He also expressed his gratitude to the civil and military authorities who worked to keep everyone safe during this Holy Year, and to the many faithful of the diocese who practiced “charity and hospitality” toward the numerous pilgrims.
The Holy Door
In the history of the Jubilees, the Holy Door of the Basilica of St John Lateran —located on the right side of the portico—was the first to be opened, during the Holy Year of 1423.
It was Pope Martin V – whose relics now rest in the confessio in front of the main altar – who identified the crossing of the Door as what would thereafter become the quintessential sign of the Jubilee pilgrimage: passing through the true threshold, which is Christ, to receive the gift of His grace.
The current Holy Door was created by sculptor Floriano Bodini for the 2000 Jubilee. On it is depicted the Blessed Virgin with the Child, the Crucified Christ, and the coat of arms of St John Paul II. The Mother protects the Child, who reaches toward the Cross to affirm His eternal divinity through sacrifice.
The other closing rites
The Holy Door of St John Lateran was the second among those of the papal basilicas to be closed. On the afternoon of Dec 25, the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, Cardinal Archpriest Rolandas Makrickas closed the Holy Door of the Basilica of St Mary Major.
On Sunday, Dec 28, the feast of the Holy Family, Cardinal Archpriest James Michael Harvey will preside over the celebration for the closing of the Holy Door of the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls.
Lastly, on Jan 6, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord, Leo XIV will close the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica, thus bringing Jubilee 2025 to a close. – Vatican News
