Pope Francis opened the second Holy Door of the Jubilee of Hope 2025 inside the prison of the New Rebibbia Complex in Rome on 26 December, as a gesture of symbolism and for the first time in the Jubilee tradition.
Upon his arrival at the Church of Our Father, located next to the penitentiary, 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 of their hearts and understand that hope does not disappoint.”
Pope Francis then knocked on the door six times and it swung wide open. He then crossed the threshold on foot, unlike when he opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica 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 church.
Pope Francis decided to leave aside the written homily to deliver a few improvised words. In his message, he wanted to underline 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 stressed. He added that “hard hearts do not help us to live” and that the grace of the Jubilee lies precisely in opening ourselves 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 presented the Holy Father with several gifts, including a miniature reproduction of the door of the Church of Our Father, made from wood from migrant boats, and a painting depicting Christ the Savior.