VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With rain-slicked coats and rain-soaked feet, last-minute visitors did not let Rome's infamous winter deluges and damp stop them from their goal: to pray and pass through to the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica.

With just a few hours to go before it closed to the public late Jan. 5, hundreds of pilgrims streamed nonstop into the basilica, pushing the final tally to well past 33 million people who visited the Vatican during the Holy Year that Pope Francis opened on Christmas Eve in 2024.

"Avanti! No stop! Vámonos!" one basilica employee manning the Holy Door told the stream of people. 

It was clear by "looking at their eyes" who was coming to the door out of pious devotion, and who experienced it as just one more stop on a busy day, one guard told Catholic News Service.

In fact, people often looked awestruck, jubilant or a bit dazed by the brilliant light bouncing off the white and gold interior of the church after weaving through the darkened square. The majority of visitors held their cell phones high, seeing the scene through the screen or taking selfies and posing as a family or a couple at the door.

Those visitors who stopped to rest their heads against the depiction of the crucified Christ on the door or reverently touch the other panels were allowed to linger longer. And men and boys who forgot to pull off their hats or hoodies were given a stern look and a curt gesture by guards to remove their headwear.

The only ones who looked tired by early evening were the children -- many slung over a loved one's shoulder or snuggled in a baby sling. 

Touching one of the bronze panels of the Holy Door became a moment of catechesis for some parents as they explained to their children how to make the sign of the cross or kiss one of the bas-relief depictions of Jesus.

One father bent down to his small son, explaining how the door "will only be open again when you're 28 years old!" calculating the next Holy Year to be in 2050. However, one is expected to be declared for the 2000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in 2033.

The last official pilgrim group through the door was led by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, which organized the different Jubilees during the Holy Year. 

He held the Jubilee cross as he walked through the Holy Door, leading members of the dicastery and scores of Jubilee volunteers who had endured the extremes of Rome's weather all year, welcoming pilgrims at all four major basilicas and manning the special corridor from Castel Sant'Angelo to St. Peter's Basilica. The volunteers wore their bright lime-green jackets and bibs, and some proudly held their country's flag in their hands.

No more pilgrim groups were allowed to leave from Piazza Pia after 5:30 p.m., and the last wave of individuals was let in after 6 p.m. By 6:40 p.m., the square was barricaded, and latecomers negotiated or pleaded with police to let them in.

"I came from Finland," said Anton, 22, an Orthodox Christian from Helsinki, who lingered at one barricade, musing about the "bad timing."

He and his friend told CNS that they had come to Rome to enjoy the food and sights, but Anton had wanted to go through the Holy Door as part of an act of spiritual purification and strengthen his desire to do something "for the greater good of God."

"Perhaps we could break in," the young men joked when considering a contingency plan. 

One young mother parked a stroller along the perimeter of the square with her two small children and her father and mother. They had taken a two-hour train and subway ride from a small town just 11 miles away, and missed their chance to get through the door, too.

"We wanted to take our picture," she said, adding that they had managed to pass through the Holy Doors of St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. John Lateran, which had both closed in late December.

Andrea, a man in his 60s, said he got to the square just when it closed. Traveling directly from Florence, he said he couldn't come earlier "because of work."

He told CNS he had been looking forward to the spiritual significance of passing through the Holy Door and the experience of "a kind of purification."

"But I did make it through in 2000," he said, recalling the very long lines to get to the door. "Let's just hope (the graces from that year) will last me another 25 years."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The powerful and violent cannot control, suppress or commodify God's grace, friendship and will to usher in a new dawn, Pope Leo XIV said.

"Around us, a distorted economy tries to profit from everything. We see how the marketplace can turn human yearnings of seeking, traveling and beginning again into a mere business," he said, celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Basilica Jan. 6, the feast of the Epiphany, and officially closing the celebration of the Holy Year dedicated to hope.

"Let us ask ourselves: has the Jubilee taught us to flee from this type of efficiency that reduces everything to a product and human beings to consumers?" he asked. "After this year, will we be better able to recognize a pilgrim in the visitor, a seeker in the stranger, a neighbor in the foreigner and fellow travelers in those who are different?" 

Before the Mass, the pope, cardinals and bishops present in Rome, gathered in the atrium of the basilica and gave thanks to God for the gifts received during the Holy Year. Dozens of the world's cardinals were in Rome to attend the pope's first extraordinary consistory Jan. 7-8, to pray, support and advise the pope on the life and mission of the church.

Pope Leo went to the threshold of the Holy Door and pulled each side shut. The door will be sealed until the next Holy Year, which is likely to be 2033, the 2000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

While the last of the Holy Doors in the city was closing, "the gate" of God's mercy will never be shut, Pope Leo said before shutting the door. God "will always sustain the weary, raise up those who have fallen" and offer "good things" to those who place their trust in him.

In his homily, Pope Leo compared the millions of men and women who came to Rome on pilgrimage to modern-day Magi, "who left palace and temple behind" in search of a new "king," which they found in the baby Jesus in a humble grotto in Bethlehem.

"Yes, the Magi still exist today. They are the people who sense the need to go out and search, accepting the risks associated with their journey, especially in a troubled world like ours that may be unpleasant and dangerous in many ways," he said.  

However, Pope Leo cautioned, today's seekers must encounter in today's churches and sacred places the same humble source of life, hope and joy that the Magi encountered in Bethlehem.

"How important it is that those who pass through the doors of the church perceive therein that the Messiah has just been born, that a community gathers in which hope springs forth and that a story of life is unfolding!" he said.

"Jesus encountered and allowed himself to be approached by all people," he said, because "the Lord wants his presence to grow among us as God-with-us."

"No one can sell this to us. The child whom the Magi adore is a priceless and immeasurable good," the pope said, criticizing "a distorted economy," which even tries to exploit and commodify the human desire for freedom and true fulfillment.

God revealing himself to humanity as man is "a gift," Pope Leo said. "He reveals himself and lets himself be found."

"His ways are not our ways, and the violent do not succeed in controlling them, nor can the powers of the world block them," he said, recalling the great joy the Magi felt upon finding the Messiah and despite Herod's efforts to destroy what had been promised.

The fear and violence unleashed by King Herod "make us think of the many conflicts by which people resist and even damage the new things that God has in store for everyone," he said. "Loving and seeking peace means protecting what is holy and, consequently, that which is newly born like a small, vulnerable, fragile baby." 

"God challenges the existing order," the pope said. "God is determined to rescue us from both old and new forms of slavery. He involves young and old, poor and rich, men and women, saints and sinners in his works of mercy and in the wonders of his justice."

"Let us ask ourselves: is there life in our church? Is there space for something new to be born? Do we love and proclaim a God who sets us on a journey?" Pope Leo asked.

"Fear does indeed blind us. Conversely, the joy of the Gospel liberates us. It makes us prudent, yes, but also bold, attentive and creative; it beckons us along ways that are different from those already traveled," he said.

"It is wonderful to become pilgrims of hope," who journey together and are amazed by God's faithfulness, he said.

"If we do not reduce our churches to monuments, if our communities are homes, if we stand united and resist the flattery and seduction of those in power, then we will be the generation of a new dawn," he said. In Jesus, "we will contemplate and serve an extraordinary humanity, transformed not by the delusions of the all-powerful, but by God who became flesh out of love." 

Outside on a cold, rainy winter morning, St. Peter's Square was filled with thousands of people watching the Mass on big screens and awaiting the pope to recite the Angelus at noon.  

Hundreds of people dressed in traditional and festive costumes took part in an annual folkloric Epiphany procession along the main boulevard in front of the basilica. Marching bands and people in Renaissance costumes paraded up the street behind the Three Kings on horseback.

Before reciting the Angelus from the balcony of the basilica's loggia, the pope prayed that God's words "come to fulfillment in us, may strangers and enemies become brothers and sisters."

"In the place of inequality, may there be fairness, and may the industry of war be replaced by the craft of peace," he said. "As weavers of hope, let us journey together toward the future by another road."

Pope Leo closes Holy Door, reflects on Jubilee

Pope Leo XIV closes the Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica and celebrates Mass in the basilica for the feast of the Epiphany Jan. 6, 2026. (CNS video/Robert Duncan)

WASHINGTON - Catholics nationwide are invited to pray “9 Days for Life,” an annual Respect Life novena starting Friday, January 16.

In the Catholic Church, a ‘novena’ consists of prayers over nine successive days, and this particular novena is an opportunity for prayer and penance in observance of the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children on January 22.

All are invited to sign up! Participants may access the novena or subscribe to receive the daily prayers by email or text message in English at 9daysforlife.com or in Spanish at respectlife.org/9-dias-por-la-vida. 

Sponsored by the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the novena began in 2013 in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade—the Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal throughout the United States. While the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization returned the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives at federal and state levels, continuing efforts are needed to protect children and their mothers from the tragedy of abortion. This is the fourteenth year the novena is taking place. Since the novena began, it has reached hundreds of thousands of people in over one hundred countries spanning six continents.

The overarching intention of the novena is the end to abortion. Each daily prayer intention highlights a related topic and is accompanied by a reflection, educational information, and suggested daily actions. A resource kit is available, featuring the daily prayer intentions and reflections, in both English and Spanish. A press kit is also available.

For additional information and updates throughout the novena, please follow us on Instagram (@USCCB), Facebook (@USCCB), TikTok (@USBishops), Threads (@USCCB), Bluesky (@usccbofficial.bsky.social) and X (@USCCB).

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- An estimated 33 million visitors and pilgrims came to the Vatican to celebrate the Jubilee Year, exceeding early forecasts, officials said at a news conference at the Vatican Jan. 5.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization's section for new evangelization and chief organizer of the 2025 Holy Year, said the figure is based on estimates from a study by Roma Tre University, online registrations for the Holy Year, and the number of people who passed through the Holy Doors of Rome's major basilicas and attended papal events. 

By the time the Holy Year ends Jan. 6, he said, at least 33 million people will have taken part, which breaks down to more than 90,000 people a day. The period with the most pilgrims in Rome was during the Jubilee of Young People from July 21 to Aug. 10, which registered more than 13 million people. 

Early estimates had expected that the Jubilee Year would bring 30 million to 35 million visitors to the Vatican. The city saw about 22 million people come to Rome in 2024, Roberto Gualtieri, mayor of Rome, said during the news conference. 

Based on data collected solely from registered pilgrims, visitors from the United States ranked second only to Italy, accounting for nearly 13 percent of the total number of registered visitors, Archbishop Fisichella said. Pilgrims from more than 185 countries participated in the Jubilee Year.

"It is inevitable that such a milestone also brings with it an assessment of this year, which in many respects has been extraordinary. Begun under Pope Francis, the Jubilee concludes under Pope Leo XIV," the archbishop said in Italian. "The funeral and the new election were added to the entire Jubilee program, showing the whole world the ability to act with determination and confidence amid an exceptional series of events."

Archbishop Fisichella thanked Rome's officials for their hard work in supporting the inflow of visitors, and said that the increase also led to increased visitor rates across the city's tourist sites.

Gualtieri agreed, saying it was a year of unprecedented tourism across the city. To accommodate the Jubilee Year and the influx of visitors, construction crews completed 110 projects across Rome, including the restoration of historic squares, monuments and holy sites. 

Lamberto Giannini, Rome's prefect, who coordinates maintaining law and order in the city, said that city and Vatican teams worked together to complete the many construction projects "without serious accidents or workplace injuries and with extensive oversight to prevent mafia infiltration -- something clearly possible given the scale of the investments."

Vatican leaders have already begun planning the next Jubilee Year, which will take place in 2033 to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

"The journey, therefore, is not finished," Archbishop Fisichella said. "This was only a significant step, preparing the way for another event of grace that must be planned with foresight and a strong awareness of an upcoming global event."
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After praying the Sunday Angelus, Pope Leo XIV said he was following the developments in Venezuela with "deep concern," in light of the United States' military operation that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend.

"The good of the beloved Venezuelan people must prevail over every other consideration," the pope said Jan. 4 from the papal studio window overlooking St. Peter's Square.

"This must lead to the overcoming of violence, and to the pursuit of paths of justice and peace, guaranteeing the sovereignty of the country, ensuring the rule of law enshrined in its constitution, respecting the human and civil rights of each and every person, and working together to build a peaceful future of cooperation, stability and harmony, with special attention to the poorest who are suffering because of the difficult economic situation." 

Pope Leo also met Jan. 5 with Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the United States, who serves as the pope's personal ambassador and top Vatican diplomat in the country.

The Catholic bishops' conference of Venezuela issued a statement Jan. 3 on social media, calling for prayers and standing in solidarity with those who were injured in the attack and families of those who died.

"In the face of the events that our country is experiencing today, let us ask God to grant all Venezuelans serenity, wisdom and strength," the bishops' statement said in Spanish.

"We call on the people of God to live more intensely in hope and fervent prayer for peace in our hearts and in society, and we reject any type of violence," they continued in a second post. "May our hands be open for encounter and mutual help, and may the decisions that are made always be for the good of our people."

On Jan. 3, President Donald Trump ordered an early morning raid in Caracas, during which U.S. special forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and struck several military bases.

The operation left political uncertainty for the South American country. Trump said in a Jan. 3 news conference that a U.S. group will work with "the people of Venezuela" to determine next steps.

"We're going to rebuild the oil infrastructure, which will cost billions of dollars. It'll be paid for by the oil companies directly," he told the press at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

"We're going to have a group of people running it until such time as it can be put back on track, make a lot of money for the people, and give people a great way of life, and also reimbursement for people in our country that were forced out of Venezuela," he said.

Trump signaled the United States was prepared to maintain a long-term role in Venezuela's governance if necessary, saying the U.S. is "ready to go again if we have to. We're going to run the country right."

In her first speech as Venezuela's interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, the vice president and oil minister, responded to the operation, saying the U.S. violated international law and that Maduro remains president. 

Pope Leo prays for Venezuela

Pope Leo prayed for Venezuela during his Angelus Jan. 4, 2026. (CNS video/Robert Duncan)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The world is not saved by threatening violence or by judging, oppressing or getting rid of others, Pope Leo XIV said.

"Rather, it is saved by tirelessly striving to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome everyone, without calculation and without fear," the pope said during Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and World Peace Day Jan. 1.

Therefore, at the beginning of a new year with "new and unique days that await us, let us ask the Lord to help us experience at every moment, around us and upon us, the warmth of his fatherly embrace and the light of his benevolent gaze," he said in his homily. 

The Mass marked the 59th World Day of Peace celebrated by the church. The pope's message for the world day, published in December, was dedicated to the humble, "unarmed and disarming" peace of the risen Christ who loves unconditionally.

Thousands of people were present in the basilica for the celebration on New Year's Day, including young people dressed as the three kings who visited Jesus. A figurine of the infant Jesus was before the altar, in keeping with the Christmas season of celebration, and an image of Our Lady of Hope was to the side of the main altar as a sign of the Jubilee of hope, which will end Jan. 6.

In his homily, Pope Leo reflected on the mystery of Mary's divine motherhood, which "helped give a human face to the source of all mercy and benevolence: the face of Jesus. Through his eyes -- first as a child, then as a young man and as an adult -- the Father's love reaches us and transforms us."

By being born of Mary in a grotto, he said, "God presents himself to us 'unarmed and disarming,' as naked and defenseless as a newborn in a cradle."

"He does this to teach us that the world is not saved by sharpening swords, nor by judging, oppressing or eliminating our brothers and sisters," he said. Rather, the world is saved by seeking to understand, forgive, free and welcome everyone with love. 

Mary bearing the Christ child represents "two immense, 'unarmed' realities" that come together, he said: "that of God, who renounces every privilege of his divinity to be born in the flesh, and that of a human person who, trustingly and fully, embraces God's will."

"Thus, at the dawn of the new year, the liturgy reminds us that for each of us, every day can be the beginning of a new life, thanks to God's generous love, his mercy and the response of our freedom," Pope Leo said. "It is beautiful to view the coming year in this way: as an open journey to be discovered."

"Indeed, through grace, we can venture forth on this journey with confidence -- free and bearers of freedom, forgiven and bringers of forgiveness, trusting in the closeness and goodness of the Lord who accompanies us always," he said.

Overlooking St. Peter's Square after Mass, Pope Leo urged Christians to help usher in "an era of peace and friendship among all peoples."

"The Jubilee, which is about to end, has taught us how to cultivate hope for a new world. We do this by converting our hearts to God, so as to transform wrongs into forgiveness, pain into consolation, and resolutions of virtue into good works," he said before praying the Angelus. 

The Son of God also illuminates "the consciences of people of goodwill, so that we can build the future as a welcoming home for every man and woman who comes into the world," he said.

"The heart of Jesus, therefore, beats for every man and woman; for those who are ready to welcome him, like the shepherds, and for those who do not want him, like Herod," he said.

"His heart is not indifferent to those who have no heart for their neighbor: it beats for the righteous, so that they may persevere in their dedication, as well as for the unrighteous, so that they may change their lives and find peace," Pope Leo said.

Every unborn child reveals "the divine image imprinted in our humanity," he said, and he called for prayers for peace: "first, among nations bloodied by conflict and suffering, but also within our homes, in families wounded by violence or pain." 

Pope Leo welcomes 2026 with a call for peace

Celebrating Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, and World Peace Day Jan. 1, 2026, Pope Leo reflected on Mary’s role in revealing the tenderness and mercy of God, urging believers to reject violence and embrace a path of...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The tenacious hope of people of faith, believing in a better tomorrow, keeps God's plan of salvation alive in the world, Pope Leo XIV said. 

They keep hope alive even though today, just like in the past, there are other kinds of plans unfolding, he said during an evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica Dec. 31. 

They include plans "aimed at conquering markets, territories and zones of influence. Weaponized strategies, cloaked in hypocritical speeches, ideological proclamations and false religious motives," he said. 

The pope, accompanied by dozens of cardinals and bishops, and thousands of visitors in the basilica, prayed vespers and then sang the "Te Deum" ("We praise you, oh God") in thanksgiving for the blessings of the past year. 

The prayer service was held less than a week before the official close of the Holy Year 2025, which was inaugurated by Pope Francis when he opened the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica during Christmas Eve Mass in 2024. Pope Leo was scheduled to close the door Jan. 6, the feast of the Epiphany, thereby officially marking the end of the Holy Year. 

"Let us thank God for the gift of the Jubilee, which has been a great sign of (God's) plan of hope for humanity and the world," Pope Leo said in his homily. 

In this plan, God has "reserved a special place for this city of Rome," he said. "Not because of its glories, not because of its power, but because Peter and Paul and so many other martyrs shed their blood here for Christ." 

"That is why Rome is the city of the Jubilee," he told the congregation, which included Rome's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, who was seated in the front row. 

The birth of the Son of God "suggests a plan, a great plan for human history," the pope said, which will "sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth." 

"Sisters, brothers, today we feel the need for a wise, benevolent, merciful plan," he said. "May it be a free and liberating, peaceful, faithful plan, like the one the Virgin Mary proclaimed in her canticle of praise: 'His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.'" 

"The Holy Mother of God, the smallest and highest among creatures, sees things through the eyes of God: she sees that with the might of his arm, the Most High disperses the plots of the arrogant, overthrows the powerful from their thrones and raises up the lowly, fills the hands of the hungry with good things and empties those of the rich," he said. 

"God loves to hope with the heart of the least" and the meek, he said, "and he does so by involving them in his plan of salvation." 

"The more beautiful the plan, the greater the hope," he said. "And indeed, the world goes on like this, driven by the hope of so many simple people, unknown but not to God, who, despite everything, believe in a better tomorrow, because they know that the future is in the hands of the One who offers them the greatest hope." 

After the service, Pope Leo visited the Vatican Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square and prayed at the creche while the band of the Swiss Guard played Christmas carols. He then greeted the faithful gathered there, exchanging small talk and wishing people a happy new year. 

2025: From Francis to Leo

For the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics -- and for millions of others -- 2025 became defined by the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV. (CNS video/Robert Duncan)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Close to 3 million pilgrims and visitors attended audiences, liturgies or meetings at the Vatican with Pope Leo XIV from the time of his election in May through December, according to the Prefecture of the Papal Household.

The prefecture, which handles the free tickets to audiences and Masses, as well as arranges the pope's daily schedule of meetings, published statistics for the year Dec. 30. 

The numbers did not include events outside the Vatican -- for instance, it did not count the Mass with more than 1 million people the pope celebrated Aug. 3 at Tor Vergata on the outskirts of Rome to conclude the Jubilee of Youth, nor did the tabulations include the crowds who came to see him in Turkey and Lebanon during his first foreign trip as pope Nov. 27-Dec. 2.

The prefecture did include people who came to see Pope Francis before his death April 21. The pope, who was hospitalized from Feb. 14 to March 23, was present for eight Wednesday or Jubilee general audiences at the Vatican, welcoming 60,500 people.

In special audiences with groups, Pope Francis encountered more than 10,000 people; some 62,000 people joined Pope Francis for Masses and prayer services and an estimated 130,000 joined him for the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer on Sundays, the prefecture said. That means he encountered 262,820 people in 2025.

Pope Leo held 36 general and Jubilee audiences during the year since his election May 8, encountering just over 1 million people, the prefecture reported.

In special audiences with smaller groups, the office said, he met with another 148,300 people. 

Some 796,500 people attended liturgies celebrated by Pope Leo at the Vatican during the year, and an estimated 900,000 people joined him for the recitation of the Angelus on Sundays and holy days.

The prefecture said that meant 2,913,800 people had encountered Pope Leo at the Vatican in 2025.

The total for 2024, which was not a Holy Year, was close to 1.7 million people at audiences and prayers with Pope Francis.
 

ROME (CNS) -- The path to conversion, the door to God's mercy and the call to live in Christian hope all continue beyond the Jubilee Year, said the three cardinals who closed the Holy Doors at three major basilicas in Rome.

On the feast of the Epiphany, Jan. 6, Pope Leo will solemnly close the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, formally concluding the Holy Year 2025, which Pope Francis opened on Christmas Eve 2024. But diocesan and other local celebrations of the Jubilee concluded Dec. 28.

Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, archpriest of Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major, presided over the rite of closing the basilica's Holy Door at dusk Dec. 25 before celebrating a special Mass. Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar of Rome and archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, did the same there Dec. 27. And U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, presided over the closing of its Holy Door and the celebration of Mass Dec. 28.

The Holy Doors are bricked up between Jubilee Years, which usually occur every 25 years. Pope Leo has indicated, however, that an extraordinary Holy Year will be celebrated in 2033, to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

"What is closing is not divine grace, but a special time of the church, and what remains open forever is the heart of the merciful God," Cardinal Makrickas said in his homily Dec. 25. While the Holy Door is closed, "the door that truly matters remains that of our heart: it opens when it listens to the word of God, it widens when it welcomes our brother or sister, it is strengthened when it forgives and asks for forgiveness,” he said.

"In this basilica, precisely during this Holy Year, we have been granted the grace of a very special task: to safeguard a memory that becomes prophecy," he said, drawing attention to the late Pope Francis, who is buried at St. Mary Major "and honored by thousands of faithful every day."

According to SIR, the news agency of the Italian bishops' conference, an estimated 20 million pilgrims passed through the Holy Door at the basilica in the past year.

Hope, the theme of the Jubilee Year, "moved the countless pilgrims who left on our roads the footprints of steps weighed down by the burdens pressing upon their hearts," Cardinal Reina told people during the Mass at St. John Lateran. "They passed through the Holy Door in order to find the One they were seeking. The door of our cathedral bears the imprints of the caresses of all those who passed through it in search of mercy." 

Though the Holy Door is closed, he said, "we know that the Risen One passes through closed doors and never tires of knocking on our closed doors, in order to offer and to find mercy. Yes, to find it -- because he too seeks it."

"Indeed, he has told us of the final surprise: that in the end we will be judged on love, on mercy, on the glass of water given to the thirsty; on the morsel of bread to the hungry; on closeness to those who are imprisoned or ill; on clothing the naked; on welcoming the stranger," Cardinal Reina said.

At St. Paul Outside the Walls, the burial place of the Apostle Paul, Cardinal Harvey noted that the Jubilee's theme, "Hope does not disappoint," was taken from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans. "It is not only a motto, but is most of all a profession of faith," the cardinal said. 

"In a world marked by war, crises, injustices and confusion, the church wanted to reaffirm that Christian hope is far different from trying to flee history," he said; rather, "it is expressed in the ability to pass through it with one's gaze fixed on Christ."

The Holy Door is not simply a material passageway, Cardinal Harvey said, "it is a spiritual threshold, a call to each one of us to leave behind that which weighs on our hearts to enter the space of mercy. Crossing it means recognizing that salvation flows from humbly entrusting ourselves to the only One who can give us fullness of life."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For the world's 1.4 billion Catholics and for millions of other people as well, the Catholic Church's 2025 was primarily about the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV.

In fact, the Wikimedia Foundation announced Dec. 2 that "Deaths in 2025" -- an entry that includes Pope Francis -- was their second most-read entry during the year, and Pope Leo's biography was the fifth most-read article of the 7.1 million entries Wikipedia has in English.

"As people rushed online to learn about Leo, traffic to all Wikimedia projects peaked at around 800,000 hits per second -- more than 6x over normal traffic levels, and a new all-time record for us," said the foundation. 

"Plenty of people came to learn more about Francis' life too," they added. "His English Wikipedia article was the 11th most-read (page) of the year."

Pope Francis had begun the year celebrating the Jan. 1 Mass for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, with a weak voice and a puffy face that, looking back, already indicated his doctors were struggling to control his chronic lung conditions -- bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis -- which were exacerbated anytime he had a cold.

He ended up being hospitalized Feb. 14 with a fever and respiratory tract infection, which later developed into double pneumonia.

While he was hospitalized, cardinals and other Vatican officials -- including U.S. Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the future Pope Leo -- started taking turns leading thousands of people in praying the rosary for Pope Francis each night in St. Peter's Square. The nightly prayers continued until the pope was released from Rome's Gemelli hospital March 23.

Pope Francis had opened the Jubilee Year Dec. 24, 2024, just after his 88th birthday. But he ended up delegating cardinals to preside over many of the Jubilee Masses. 

On Easter, after giving his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) -- but barely able to raise his hands -- he took his final ride in the popemobile, spending about 15 minutes among the crowd.

Pope Francis died at 7:35 a.m. the next morning, April 21.

In addition to the mourning and the prayers, his death marked the beginning of meetings of the College of Cardinals to discuss the state of the church, its needs and the needs of the world and the qualities the next pope should have.

The conclave to elect the pope solemnly began May 7 with 133 cardinals entering the Sistine Chapel. Cardinal Prevost was elected the next day, on the fourth ballot, and took the name Pope Leo XIV.

"Peace be with you," were Pope Leo's first words to the crowd. The same words are often the first he says to any group he meets.

With a warm but measured demeanor, the first U.S.-born pope eased into his new ministry, highlighting the same themes his predecessors had: the primary Christian mission of sharing the Gospel, working for peace, promoting unity within the church and within the human family and bringing all of that together by serving the poor and denouncing injustice. 

He explained the threads of that inter-connected message in his first major document, "Dilexi Te" ("I Have Loved You"), an apostolic exhortation "to all Christians on love for the poor." 

"Love for the poor -- whatever the form their poverty may take -- is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God," the pope wrote. "I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society, if we can only set ourselves free of our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry."

That love, he said in the document and repeatedly elsewhere as well, extends to migrants and refugees.

"The Church has always recognized in migrants a living presence of the Lord who, on the day of judgment, will say to those on his right: 'I was a stranger, and you welcomed me,'" he wrote.

Pope Leo has been asked repeatedly about U.S. President Donald Trump's treatment of migrants and refugees and the administration's stated goal of mass deportations, and he repeatedly has affirmed church teaching that recognizes the right of a nation to control its borders while insisting that people seeking safety and a better life must be treated with dignity. 

Unlike Pope Francis, his predecessor, Pope Leo has had many of those conversations with reporters in Castel Gandolfo, home of a sprawling papal property with villas, a farm, gardens and a new center dedicated to educating people in ecology.

While Pope Francis visited only a couple of times and then turned the main papal residence at Castel Gandolfo into a museum, Pope Leo spent weeks there in the summer and returns most Monday evenings to spend 24 hours at the villa reading, relaxing, playing tennis and swimming in the indoor pool.

Being elected during a Holy Year, with special Jubilee celebrations planned most weekends, Pope Leo inherited a full calendar and made it his own, especially in late July with the Jubilee of Youth, which brought more than 1 million young people to Rome. 

He had a special and immediate connection with the crowd, in large part because he spoke directly to the young people in English and Spanish in addition to Italian, the Vatican's official working language. 

The young people roared with approval as he spoke to them in languages that most could understand without translation. He clearly tapped into their potential, their hopes and their dreams and brought them along with him to celebrate and pray.

"Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are," he told them at Mass Aug. 3. "Do not settle for less. You will then see the light of the Gospel growing every day, in you and around you."

His ability to connect and his focus on mission, unity and peace were especially obvious Nov. 27-Dec. 2 as he made his first foreign trip as pope, visiting Turkey and Lebanon. 

The trip was planned around an ecumenical celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the Creed most Christians share. But he also encouraged the minority Catholic communities that make outsized contributions to both nations and spent hours demonstrating his respect for the majority Muslim communities.

"The more we can promote authentic unity and understanding, respect and human relationships of friendship and dialogue in the world, the greater possibility there is that we will put aside the arms of war, that we will leave aside the distrust, the hatred, the animosity that has so often been built up and that we will find ways to come together and be able to promote authentic peace and justice throughout the world," he told reporters flying back to Rome with him Dec. 2.