Pope opens Holy Doors, including one at a Rome Prison

A Holy Door has been opened in a prison for the first time since the Jubilee tradition began.

In a message of mercy and hope to the incarcerated, Pope Francis said the Holy Door, located at Rebibbia Prison in Rome, was a “beautiful gesture of opening.”

Pope Francis expressed his wish that prisoners “look to the future with hope and a renewed sense of confidence.”

“The first Holy Door I opened at Christmas in St. Peter’s,” he explained to inmates when he arrived at the Rebibbia New Complex Prison.

“I wanted the second one to be here, in a prison. I wanted each of us here, inside and out, to have the opportunity to fling open the door to their hearts and to understand that hope never disappoints.”

The pope ushered in the 2025 Jubilee Year, centred on ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ by opening the first Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.

The Holy Doors, located within the four major Papal Basilicas in Rome – St Peter’s Basilica, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Mary Major, and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls – are ceremonially opened during Jubilee Years.

In his papal bull marking the jubilee, titled “Spes non confundit” (hope does not disappoint), Pope Francis noted that in the Catholic tradition, the Holy Door represents the passage to salvation – the path to a new and eternal life, which was opened to humanity by Jesus.

“I like to think of hope as the anchor that is on the shore and, with the rope, we are safe,” he said after visiting Rebibbia Prison, which he described as a “cathedral of pain and hope”.

“Do not lose hope: this is the message I want to give you, to give all of us … because hope never disappoints. In bad moments, we can all think that everything is over. Do not lose hope. This is the message I wanted to give you. Do not lose hope.”

The year runs until 6 January 2026, the Feast Day of Epiphany, when the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica will close.