Holy Door is symbol of God's arms open to all, cardinal says

ROME (CNS) — A Holy Door is an image of God, who awaits the return of his children with open arms, said the archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. John Lateran.

Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar for Rome and archpriest of the basilica, which is the Diocese of Rome’s cathedral, opened the Holy Door there Dec. 29 as bishops around the world launched the Holy Year 2025 in their dioceses.

“It is not important how far we have strayed; it is not relevant what we have done, wasted or ruined,” the cardinal said in his homily at Mass after opening the door. “The moment we have decided to return we will never find a closed door, but only an embrace that welcomes and blesses.”

Pope Francis opened the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 24 and at Rome’s Rebibbia prison Dec. 26 but assigned the archpriests of the city’s other major basilicas to preside over the ceremonies of the other major pilgrimage sites. Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, was to open the Holy Door there Jan. 1, and U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, was to preside over the opening of the Holy Door there Jan. 5.

In his homily Dec. 29, Cardinal Reina said that crossing the threshold of a Holy Door during the Jubilee Year is a sign that one accepts God’s call to return to him and to live as his son or daughter and as a brother or sister to others.

The open doors, he said, are “an invitation to respond to God’s grace with an open heart, allowing ourselves to be reconciled by his embrace that restores our dignity and enables us to build relationships of authentic fraternity.”