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 Holy Dear 2025 Pope Francis Opens the Holy Door at Rebibbia Prison, Rome (Vatican City, 2025) This past Sunday, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica for the Third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday. The Mass was also the final major celebration of the Holy Year, the Jubilee of Prisoners. Looking back to the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Hope, it started with the opening of the Holy Door at Saint Peter’s Basilica by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve, 2024. Two days later, in a unique ceremony, he opened the special Holy Door at the Church of Our Father at Rebibbia Prison in Rome, which is captured on the Vatican City stamp shown at the top of the article. The event brought into focus the pope’s deep commitment for the direction of mercy towards prisoners, and that this population should not be forgotten. At Sunday’s Mass, Pope Leo recalled Pope Francis’s gesture to prisoners by saying: ” he was inviting us to keep alive our faith in the life to come and always to believe in the possibility of a better future. At the same time, however, he was exhorting us to be people who practice, with generous hearts, justice and charity in the places where we live.”The Mass for the Jubilee of Prisoners attracted an estimated gathering of 6,000 attendees from around 90 countries across the globe, and included detainees and their families, prison chaplains, correctional officers, police, and prison administrators. During his homily, the pope reminded all that as the Jubilee Year comes to a close, challenges remain within prison systems worldwide: ”While the close of the Jubilee Year draws near, we must recognize that, despite the efforts of many, even in the penitentiary system there is much that still needs to be done”The focus on prisoners recalls the Church’s seven Corporal Works of Mercy, which can be traced to the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 25:34-40). Vatican City has called attention to the Corporal Works of Mercy on three occasions with the issuance of stamps. An eight-stamp set was issued in 1960, during the papacy of Pope John XXIII. A second set, calling for the remission of foreign debt for poor countries, was released in 2001, and the third series coincided with the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy called by Pope Francis in 2016. Each set provides an illustration for one of those merciful acts--visit the imprisoned: 
 Visit the Imprisoned: Corporal Works of Mercy (Scott 289, 1960) Remission of Debt for Poor Countries (Scott 1195, 2001) Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (Scott 1632, 2016) As the Jubilee Year of Hope draws to its conclusion in December and early January, the Holy Doors at the four major Papal Basilicas will be closed. In addition, the door at Rebibbia Prison will be closed in two weeks, on Sunday, December 28. REFRENCES |
