Jubilee 2025: Pope Francis opens the Holy Door in Rebibbia prison

In a gesture full of symbolism, Pope Francis opened the second Holy Door of the Jubilee of Hope 2025 on December 26 in the Rebibbia prison, located on the outskirts of Rome.

Upon his arrival at the Church of the Lord’s Prayer, located next to the penitentiary center, the Pontiff explained his decision to choose a prison: “I wanted the second Holy Door to be in a prison so that everyone, both inside and outside, could open the door. from the heart and understand that hope does not disappoint.”

Afterwards, Pope Francis knocked on the door six times and it opened wide. Later, he crossed the threshold walking, unlike the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, when he did so in a wheelchair.

After the opening rite, the Holy Father presided over a Mass in the presence of some inmates and their families. According to the authorities, 300 people participated and another 300 followed the Mass from outside the temple.

Pope Francis wanted to put aside the written homily to pronounce some improvised words. In his message, he wanted to highlight two essential ideas: hope never disappoints and the need to keep the doors of the heart open.

“The gesture of opening the holy doors is beautiful, but the most important thing is what it means: opening hearts,” the Pontiff highlighted. He added that “hard hearts do not help to live” and that the grace of the Jubilee lies precisely in opening itself to hope.

He compared hope to an anchor attached to a rope that holds us up in difficult times: “The rope can sometimes hurt our hands,” but it always helps us move forward.

He also lamented that a closed heart “hardens like a stone” and loses the ability to feel tenderness, and insisted on the need to keep the doors of the heart open. Before concluding, he assured the inmates that he prays for them every day.

At the end of the liturgy, the inmates gave the Holy Father several gifts, including a miniature reproduction of the Our Father church door, made with wood from migrant boats, and a painting representing Christ the Savior.

The visit to Rebibbia responds to the guidelines of the bull Hope does not disappointin which they are urged to be “tangible signs of hope for so many brothers and sisters who live in conditions of hardship.”

In particular, the papal text remembers the prisoners, who, in addition to suffering the deprivation of liberty, face “the emotional void, the imposed restrictions and, in many cases, the lack of respect.”