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Jesus “is the Door of life, the Hope that does not disappoint, the Gospel that saves,” declared Pope Francis as he opened the second Holy Door set up as part of the Jubilee 2025 on December 26, 2024, at the Rebibbia prison in the northeast of Greater Rome.
The 88-year-old pope, who has made numerous visits to prisons since the start of his pontificate, managed to get up and take a few steps to symbolically pass through the door. On December 24, when he passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, he remained in his wheelchair.
Dressed in a red chasuble on this December 26, which marks the liturgical feast of the martyrdom of St. Stephen, Pope Francis passed through this second Holy Door, installed in a prison, at around 8:50 a.m., a sign of the special attention Jesus gives to the most marginalized.
“May the opening of this Holy Door be for all of us an invitation to look to the future with hope,” he said, before proceeding with the rite of opening the door.
Improvising a few more words to explain the rite, Francis explained that “I wanted this second Holy Door to be here, in a prison. I wanted each of us, all of us who are here, inside and outside, to have the possibility of opening the doors of our hearts and understanding that hope does not disappoint,” he insisted.
Accompanied by Bishop Benoni Ambarus, auxiliary of the Diocese of Rome, the Pope then stood up, symbolically knocked on the Holy Door, and crossed it by taking a few steps, before an assistant brought back his wheelchair.
Mass was then held in the prison chapel, with a simple liturgy involving both inmates and guards. Around 300 people were present inside and 300 outside.
Pope Francis did not deliver the planned homily, but improvised a short meditation on this rite, the meaning of which is “to open hearts to create fraternity,” he explained.
The Pope acknowledged that “in bad times, we can think that everything is over,” but he insisted that “hope never disappoints.”
He invited us to approach hope as an anchor to hold on to, stretching out on a rope. Even if that rope hurts your hands, you have to keep your eyes fixed on the shore, he reflected.
I like to think of hope as the anchor that is on the shore and we with the rope stay there, secure, because our hope is like the anchor on dry land (cf. Heb 6:17-20). Do not lose hope. This is the message I want to give you; to everyone, to all of us. Myself first. Everyone.
Do not lose hope. Hope never disappoints. Never. Sometimes the rope is hard and it hurts our hands ... but with the rope, always with the rope in hand, looking at the shore, the anchor carries us forward. Always there is something good, always there is something that keeps us going.
Opening the doors of the heart
Addressing the prisoners, the Pope insisted on the image of “open windows, open doors, especially the door of the heart. When the heart is closed, hard as a rock, tenderness is forgotten,” he warned.
“Open the doors of the heart,” the Pope urged, explaining that the Holy Door he had just opened was a signal in this sense.
“Everyone knows where the door is closed or semi-closed,” he remarked, before wishing the inmates and prison staff "a good Jubilee, with much peace."
“Every day, I pray for you,” Pope Francis assured the inmates.
After the celebration of mass - Pope Francis having left Archbishop Ambarus to preside over the Eucharistic prayer at the altar - each of the participants was able to greet the pontiff personally. He received a number of gifts from both male and female prisoners. The prison administration presented him with a frame depicting Christ, made by a former prison policeman.
“I wish you a Happy New Year! May this new year be better than the last,” he wished as he concluded the encounter, before turning his thoughts to the inmates who had remained in their cells.
He concluded by urging again that all the prisoners keep “their hands always clinging to the anchor” of hope.
The inmates themselves had requested this symbolic presence of a Holy Door in prison. In addition, a Jubilee of Prisoners will be held on December 14, 2025. For the time being, it is the last thematic gathering scheduled for the Holy Year.
