Grow in hope, cardinal says as he opens Holy Door

ROME (CNS) — During the Holy Year 2025, Catholics are called not only to grow in the virtue of hope but also to share it with others, said U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Pope Francis’ call to the whole Church during the Jubilee Year is “both pressing and challenging. It is a call not to be satisfied just with having hope, but to radiate hope, to be sowers of hope,” the cardinal said at Mass Jan. 5 after opening the basilica’s Holy Door.

The golden bronze door, installed for the Holy Year 2000, was the last of the Holy Doors at the papal basilicas of Rome to be opened for pilgrims.

U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, celebrates Mass Jan. 5, 2025, following the opening of the basilica’s Holy Door at the start of the Holy Year 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

With the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” Pope Francis inaugurated the Holy Year Dec. 24 by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, and he opened a Holy Door Dec. 26 at Rome’s Rebibbia prison. The archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran opened the Holy Door there Dec. 29, and the coadjutor archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major opened the Holy Door at the Marian basilica Jan. 1.

“The most beautiful gift the Church can give”

In his homily at St. Paul Outside the Walls, Cardinal Harvey said hope “is certainly the most beautiful gift the Church can give humanity, especially at this moment in history.”

The opening of the Holy Door, particularly during the Christmas season, he said, “marks the salvific passage opened by Christ with his Incarnation, death and Resurrection, calling all members of the church to reconcile with God and with their neighbor.”

Cardinal Harvey told the congregation of close to 3,000 people that the words, “Spes Unica,” meaning “our only hope,” are written at the base of the cross on top of the basilica.

Visitors walk through the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome Jan. 5, 2025, after its ceremonial opening by U.S. Cardinal James M. Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica, at the start of the Holy Year 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

During the Jubilee Year, he said, Christians in Rome and around the world are called to hold tight to the cross and set off as pilgrims, journeying together, supporting one another and sharing with all people the hope for eternal salvation accomplished in Christ.

Quoting the Letter to the Romans of the Apostle Paul, whose tomb is under the basilica’s main altar, Cardinal Harvey said his Holy Year prayer is: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”