More than half a million people have already passed through the Holy Door at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the first two weeks of the Jubilee Year of Hope, in a “very significant” beginning to 2025.
The Vatican announced over the weekend 545,532 people from around the world have made the journey along the lengthy boulevard leading to St Peter’s Square and crossed through the basilica’s Holy Door, since it was opened by Pope Francis on December 24.
“This is a very significant beginning,” Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the chief Vatican organiser of the Jubilee Year, said in a statement.
“The groups crowding Via della Conciliazione are giving an important testimony, and this is also a sign of the great perception of safety and security that pilgrims experience in the city of Rome and around the four papal basilicas.”
More than 30 million people are expected to make a pilgrimage to Rome during the Jubilee Year.
Based on the number of pilgrims that crossed the Holy Door in the first days of the Holy Year, "a steady increase in pilgrim turnout is expected," the Vatican said in its statement.
Many people would have chosen to remain in their own Diocese to begin the Holy Year, when local Bishops celebrated the opening of the Jubilee in their respective Cathedrals.
Throughout the year, there are many major events which are expected to attract large numbers of pilgrims, including the Jubilee of Youth and Easter.
While Archbishop Fisichella acknowledged there has been some “difficulties” controlling the flow of the pilgrims to start but those problems were being studied.
The first major event of the Holy Year is the Jubilee of the World of Communications, which will take place on January 24th to 26th, and will bring "thousands of journalists, experts and communications workers from all over the world," according to the Vatican.