VATICAN CITY (CNS) — More than half a million pilgrims crossed the threshold of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the first two weeks after it was opened by Pope Francis.
From Dec. 24, when the pope inaugurated the Holy Year, until Jan. 7, the Vatican said, 545,532 people from around the world walked the long boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square and passed through the Gate Saint of the basilica.
“This is a very significant beginning,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella, chief organizer of the jubilee year at the Vatican, said in a statement. “The groups that crowd the Via della Conciliazione give an important testimony, and it is also a sign of the great feeling of safety and security that pilgrims feel in the city of Rome and around the four papal basilicas.”
A tunnel diverting vehicle traffic underground at the start of Via Della Conciliazione – the street leading to the Vatican – was completed just before the start of the Holy Year. A path from the new pedestrian square at the beginning of the street to the Holy Door has also been created exclusively for pilgrims walking alone or in groups to St. Peter’s Basilica.
Archbishop Fisichella acknowledged, however, that there were some “difficulties” in managing the flow of pilgrims and tourists through St. Peter’s Basilica, a problem which would be investigated.
The city of Rome estimates that more than 30 million people will visit the city during the Jubilee.
Based on the number of pilgrims who passed through the Holy Door during the first days of the Holy Year, “a steady increase in the participation of pilgrims is expected,” the Vatican said in its statement, also noting the large number of children, young people, adults and elderly people who participated in the jubilee celebrations at the diocesan level on December 29.
The Vatican said “the great desire to participate in the Jubilee was also visible in the thousands of people who filled the four papal basilicas on the days celebrating the opening of the Holy Doors, often filling the squares in front of them.”
While Pope Francis opened the holy door of St. Peter’s Basilica and another at a prison complex in Rome, he did not attend the opening of the holy doors of Rome’s three other papal basilicas: St. Mary’s -Major, Saint John Lateran and Saint John Lateran. .Paul outside the walls.
The first major event of the Holy Year is the Jubilee of the World of Communication, from January 24 to 26, which will bring together in Rome “thousands of journalists, experts and communication professionals from all over the world”, the Vatican said.
Read more Jubilee 2025
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