On Christmas Day, Cardinal Makrickas closed the Holy Door at St. Mary Major, urging faithful to keep hearts open to God’s Word, welcome others, and forgive.
Newsroom (26/12/2025 Gaudium Press) Amid persistent rain that had soaked the Eternal City for days, the ancient bell known as the “Sperduta” tolled solemnly on Christmas evening, marking the close of the Holy Door at the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major. The rite, presided over by Cardinal Archpriest Rolandas Makrickas, brought to an end a special Jubilee year while emphasizing that divine mercy remains eternally accessible.
As dusk fell on December 25, the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, pilgrims gathered for the ancient ceremony. In silence, Cardinal Makrickas ascended the steps to the Holy Door, knelt in prayer on its threshold, and then gently closed the bronze panels. “As we close this Holy Door,” he declared, “we believe that the heart of the Risen One, an inexhaustible source of new life, remains always open to those who hope in Him.”
The timing of the closure carried deep symbolic weight. Nearly one year earlier, on January 1, 2025, the doors had been opened to inaugurate the Jubilee of Hope. Closing them on Christmas Day drew deliberate attention to the basilica’s cherished relic: the wooden pieces of the Holy Crib where the infant Jesus was laid.
During the Mass that followed, accompanied by the historic Liberian Choir celebrating its 480th anniversary this Jubilee Year, Cardinal Makrickas stressed that what ends is merely “a special time for the Church,” not divine grace itself. “What remains open forever,” he said, “is the heart of merciful God.”
He urged the faithful to view the physical door’s closure as a call to personal transformation. “The door that truly matters remains the door of our heart,” the cardinal explained. “It opens when we listen to the Word of God, it expands when we welcome our brothers and sisters, and it is strengthened when we forgive and ask for forgiveness.”
Passing through the Holy Door during the Jubilee, he added, was a gift; becoming “open doors for others” is now the mission ahead. The simple yet solemn gesture thus serves both as grateful remembrance and courageous commitment.
In his homily, Cardinal Makrickas noted the historic character of this Jubilee of Hope, begun by Pope Francis and continued under Pope Leo XIV — only the second time in history a Holy Year has spanned two pontificates. The precedent dates to 1700, when Innocent XII opened the doors and Clement XI closed them. Such transitions, he observed, illustrate “the life of the Church that never ends,” for “the Lord never abandons His Church.”
Throughout the year, the Church proclaimed anew that “God is not distant, that peace is possible, that mercy is stronger than sin.” Hope, the cardinal insisted, is no illusion or naive optimism but “a concrete force that opens new paths” and “a decision marked by love.”
Drawing inspiration from Mary — whose iconic image Salus Populi Romani is venerated in the basilica — he described hope as born from welcome: welcoming God, welcoming others, and welcoming the future without fear. Only by allowing God into our hearts, he said, can we open the true Holy Door of mercy, reconciliation, and fraternity.
Cardinal Makrickas called on the assembly to translate the Jubilee’s graces into daily life through renewed prayer, attention to the poor, family reconciliation, creative work, and merciful community presence — becoming “a Church with the Gospel in our hands and our brothers and sisters in our hearts.”
The Prayers of the Faithful included intentions for the Church’s fidelity to its mission, for pilgrims renewed in hope, for truth-seekers finding light in God, and for greater attentiveness to the needs of the poor. The Mass concluded with the traditional Christmas carol Astro del ciel (Silent Night) and a solemn blessing.
Saint Mary Major’s Holy Door, created by sculptor Luigi Enzo Mattei and inaugurated by Saint John Paul II in 2001, depicts scenes inspired by the Shroud of Turin alongside key Marian moments from salvation history. It was the first of the papal basilicas’ Holy Doors to close this Jubilee.
The remaining closures will follow shortly: Saint John Lateran on December 27, presided over by Cardinal Baldassare Reina; Saint Paul Outside the Walls on December 28, led by Cardinal James Michael Harvey; and finally Saint Peter’s Basilica on January 6, the Epiphany, when Pope Leo XIV will perform the rite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK8YIRf15ys
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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