38,000 Believers Celebrated Christmas Eve Mass with Pope
With a procession to the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis began the Christmas celebrations on Tuesday evening. In a solemn ceremony on Christmas Eve, the 88-year-old Pontiff, who was sitting in a wheelchair, opened the Holy Door, which is usually bricked up from the inside, and walked through it. The bronze door is only opened on the occasion of Holy Years. The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also participated in the ceremony.
This year's Christmas Mass in Rome also marked the beginning of the Holy Year, which the Catholic Church celebrates every 25 years. A girl from Wels, eight-year-old Ludovica Lavinia Piccioni, was one of ten children who accompanied the Pope at the opening of the Holy Door.
Catholic Church Celebrates Jubilee Year Every 25 Years
The Catholic Church usually celebrates a Holy Year, also known as a Jubilee Year, every 25 years. The door is closed again after a Holy Year, sealed and bricked up from the inside. This Jubilee Year lasts a few days longer than a regular calendar year: It begins on this 24th of December, extends over the entire year 2025, and officially ends on January 6, 2026.
About 8,000 people came to St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday. 30,000 believers gathered in St. Peter's Square. A billion people around the world were able to watch the ceremony live on television.
Pope Calls for World Peace in Sermon
In his sermon, the Pope advocated for world peace. "There is so much devastation in this world. Think of the wars, of children being shot at with machine guns, of bombs on schools and hospitals," lamented Francis. "The jubilee calls us to spiritual renewal and obliges us to transform the world, so that this truly becomes a time of jubilation: for our Mother Earth, disfigured by the logic of profit - for the poorest countries, burdened by unjust debts; for all those who are prisoners of old and new slavery," the Pope explained.
Strict Anti-Terror Measures Taken in Rome
The Italian Ministry of the Interior has tightened anti-terror controls in Rome and around the Vatican following the attack in Magdeburg. The police plan to rely more heavily on sniffer dogs and video systems to ensure the smooth running of the festivities. Thousands of Carabinieri, police officers and soldiers are to be deployed in Rome to monitor subway stations, train stations and airports.
Seven activists, members of the environmental movement "Debt for Climate", were apprehended during the controls carried out on the occasion of the opening of the jubilee. They were three women and four men aged between 20 and 40 years. They come from Germany, the USA and Belgium. They were stopped by police with an inflatable barrier.
In recent months, preparations have been in full swing. Rome spruced itself up and caught up on what had been neglected for a long time. The city was engulfed in construction chaos: the dilapidated infrastructure had to be brought up to standard, and famous landmarks such as the Trevi Fountain or the Angel's Bridge were quickly spruced up.
(APA/Red)
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