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U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome's Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, celebrates Mass Jan. 5, 2025, following the opening of the basilica's Holy Door at the start of the Holy Year 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Grow in hope, share it with others, cardinals says as he opens Holy Door

January 6, 2025
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Jubilee 2025, News, Vatican, World News

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ROME (CNS) — During the Holy Year 2025, Catholics are called not only to grow in the virtue of hope, but also to share it with others, said U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, prays during Mass Jan. 5, 2025, following the opening of the Holy Door of the basilica marking the start of the Holy Year 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

Pope Francis’ call to the whole church during the Jubilee Year is “both pressing and challenging. It is a call not to be satisfied just with having hope, but to radiate hope, to be sowers of hope,” the cardinal said at Mass Jan. 5 after opening the basilica’s Holy Door.

The golden bronze door, installed for the Holy Year 2000, was the last of the Holy Doors at the papal basilicas of Rome to be opened for pilgrims.

With the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” Pope Francis inaugurated the Holy Year Dec. 24 by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, and he opened a Holy Door Dec. 26 at Rome’s Rebibbia prison. The archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran opened the Holy Door there Dec. 29, and the coadjutor archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major opened the Holy Door at the Marian basilica Jan. 1.

In his homily at St. Paul Outside the Walls, Cardinal Harvey said hope “is certainly the most beautiful gift the church can give humanity, especially at this moment in history.”

The opening of the Holy Door, particularly during the Christmas season, he said, “marks the salvific passage opened by Christ with his incarnation, death and resurrection, calling all members of the church to reconcile with God and with their neighbor.”

Cardinal Harvey told the congregation of close to 3,000 people that the words, “Spes Unica,” meaning “our only hope,” are written at the base of the cross on top of the basilica.

During the Jubilee Year, he said, Christians in Rome and around the world are called to hold tight to the cross and set off as pilgrims, journeying together, supporting one another and sharing with all people the hope for eternal salvation accomplished in Christ.

Quoting the Letter to the Romans of the Apostle Paul, whose tomb is under the basilica’s main altar, Cardinal Harvey said his Holy Year prayer is: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Read More Jubilee 2025

Pope Francis dies during Jubilee, leaving Holy Door open in papal first

Be ‘heralds of hope,’ pope asks priests in homily for chrism Mass

God fills 6,000 pilgrims ‘with his graces’ as they take to LA streets with prayer, witness

Registration opens for 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage events in 10 states

God’s mercy, forgiveness pave the path toward hope, pope writes

Pope to Jubilee pilgrims: God acts even when we do not see the results

Copyright © 2025 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

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Cindy Wooden

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