Jubilee 2025: There is always something good’, says Pope opening the Holy Door at the Rebibbia prison
Today, the Feast of St Stephen, Pope Francis visited a prison, a “cathedral of pain”, home for 285 inmates. He led Holy Mass at the Church of Our Father. In his homily, the pontiff said that “Hope never disappoints!” At the Angelus in St Peter's, he called for the cancellation of the debt of “oppressed” countries.
Rome (AsiaNews) – In Rome, not only the papal basilicas will guard the holy doors for the jubilee year that has begun, but after St Peter's, they will open on the 29th at St. John Lateran, on 1 January at St Mary Major, and on 5th January at St Paul's Outside the Walls.
Today, Saint Stephen's, the second Holy Door was opened, or rather, to cite Pope Francis, it was thrown open wide, at the Rebibbia Prison, an institution that houses 285 inmates.
"The grace of a Jubilee is to open wide, open and, above all, open hearts to hope," the pontiff said this morning in the Church of Our Father, which reopened after four years. Hope is a "cathedral of pain" and a "basilica in quotation marks" that represents salvation for those waiting inside, uncertain.
The symbolic act was carried out today in this place, a symbol of thresholds and human marginality, where God lives and does not forget those at the bottom, an act that reminds us of his presence.
“He awaits us at the threshold,” the pope said yesterday during the Urbi et Orbi Christmas message. “He awaits each one of us, especially the most vulnerable.” The latter include the elderly, those who live in a place of war, those who lost their homes or jobs, the persecuted, inmates.
Speaking to the Italian news agency SIR, the chaplain of Rebibbia, Fr Lucio Boldrin, said: “The opening of the Holy Door wants to be this cry; let us reopen to hope even those who have made mistakes in the world”.
"Hope never disappoints!” Francis said in his homily in the Holy Mass he led, starting 9:00 am. “Think carefully about this. I think so too, because in bad moments one thinks that everything is over, that nothing is resolved. But hope never disappoints.”
Pope Francis evoked hope that does not abandon with the image of an anchor from which a firm rope extends to cling to. “Sometimes the rope is hard and hurts our hands... but with the rope, always with the rope in hand, looking at the shore, the anchor carries us forward. There is always something good, there is always something that keeps us going," he explained.
Wide open doors, however, must not be just an aesthetic artefact, unable to inform human minds. They must be an opportunity for a great opening, especially of the "door of the heart".
"When the heart is closed, it becomes hard as a stone; it forgets tenderness. Even in the most difficult situations.” Instead, “Always an open heart; the heart, which is precisely what makes us brothers and sisters. Open wide the doors of the heart. Everyone knows how to do it. Everyone knows where the door is closed or half-closed. Everyone knows.”
At the end of the Holy Mass, Pope Francis addressed Christmas greetings to the prisoners, "who remained in their cells”. “May next year be better than this one. Every year has to be better," he said. “The hands that cling. Don't forget that. Happy New Year to everyone.”
A few hours later, the pontiff appeared at the window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace for the recitation of the Angelus on the feast day of Saint Stephen, the first martyr of Christianity.
In the commentary that preceded the Marian prayer, the pontiff spoke at length about the stoning of the protomartyr in the Acts of the Apostles (cf. 6:8-12; 7:54-60), when he “prays for his killers.” Even though he appears to be “helplessly" suffering violence, “in reality, as a truly free man, he continues to love even his killers and to offer his life for them, like Jesus,” Francis said.
The deacon Stephen “offers his life so that they may repent and, having been forgiven, be given eternal life.” In doing so, he “appears to us as a witness of that God who has one great desire: ‘that all men be saved’”.
He then turned to those who are discriminated in the world today because of their faith. “Unfortunately, even today there are, in various parts of the world, many men and women who are persecuted, at times up to death, because of the Gospel. What we have said about Stephen applies to them too,” Pope Francis said.
“They do not allow themselves to be killed out of weakness, nor to defend an ideology, but to make everyone participants in the gift of salvation. And they do so first and foremost for the good of their killers: for the killers … and they pray for them.”
Francis remembered the “Blessed Christian de Chergé, who called his future killer a ‘last minute friend’.” After the Angelus, he addressed the international community for the Holy Year that has just begun.
“One of the actions that characterizes Jubilees is the forgiving of debts. I therefore encourage everyone to support the Caritas Internationalis campaign entitled ‘Turn debt into hope’, to relieve countries oppressed by unsustainable debts and to promote development.”
“The question of debt is linked to that of peace and the ‘black market’ of weapons. No more colonizing peoples with weapons! Let us work for disarmament, let us work against hunger, against disease, against child labour. And let us pray, please, for peace throughout the world!”
The pontiff also expressed hope for peace in tormented Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Myanmar, North Kivu, and “many countries that are at war.”
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