{"id":33638,"date":"2025-12-28T12:27:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T11:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/explorecatholic.nl\/nieuws\/cardinal-harvey-closes-holy-door-at-st-pauls-outside-the-walls\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T12:27:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T11:27:00","slug":"cardinal-harvey-closes-holy-door-at-st-pauls-outside-the-walls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explorecatholic.nl\/en\/news\/cardinal-harvey-closes-holy-door-at-st-pauls-outside-the-walls\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal Harvey closes Holy Door at St Paul’s Outside the Walls"},"content":{"rendered":"
In his homily during Mass in the papal basilica of St Paul\u2019s Outside the Walls, Cardinal James Harvey reaffirms the central theme of the Jubilee: a trusting confidence capable of passing through history without succumbing to \u201cna\u00efve optimism.\u201d<\/p>\n
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By Edoardo Giribaldi<\/b><\/p>\n
Christian hope does not ignore the wars, crises, injustices and confusion that the world is experiencing today, Cardinal James Michael Harvey, Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, said in his homily during the Eucharistic celebration with the closing of the Holy Door, which took place Sunday morning, 28 December.<\/p>\n
To escape, to flee from the reality of one’s own limitations and imperfections, from the wounded collective history of today; or to remain, chained in one’s own inner prisons, allowing resignation to become a habit and then a wound: these are two opposite and complementary movements, like the opening and closing of a Holy Door.<\/p>\n
Yet, in these last two, the memory of a mercy that is not consumed is preserved, of a \u201csalvation already given\u201d which, once introduced into history, becomes a seed capable of sprouting without withering. This is the horizon of meaning evoked by the cardinal.<\/p>\n
Peace and the only hope<\/h2>\n
The sun high above the statue of St Paul, in the centre of the Basilica\u2019s quadriportico, warmed the faithful who had gathered for the liturgy, allaying the harsh winter temperatures.<\/p>\n
The Holy Door is located on the right side of the fa\u00e7ade, under whose cross stands the inscription \u201cSpes unica<\/i>\u201d. And \u201cthe only hope,\u201d as the American cardinal recalled at Mass, lies in the \u201cCross of Christ\u201d: an \u201cEaster\u201d wish that sprouts from the unconditional gift of self and \u201cblooms in the new life of the resurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nearby, the phrase engraved on the Holy Door that has accompanied pilgrims throughout the year \u2013 \u201cAd sacram Pauli cunctis venientibus aedem – sit pacis donum perpetuumque salus<\/i>\u201d – is a constant hope that the \u2018gift of peace\u2019 may truly spread in a world marked by \u201cwars, crises, injustices and confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The closing of the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls \u00a0 (@VATICAN MEDIA) <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The closing of the Holy Door<\/h2>\n
The closing ceremony was marked by a contemplative silence that accompanied Cardinal Harvey to the Holy Door, whose three panels recall the three years of preparation for the Holy Year 2000, requested by St John Paul II and dedicated to the Father, rich in mercy “to the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of evangelisation\u201d and to the Son, the Redeemer. The cardinal knelt before it and, after a few moments of prayerful reflection, closed its doors.<\/p>\n
Hope in the \u2018struggle of life\u2019<\/h2>\n
Reaching a conclusion \u201cis always a moment in time,\u201d the cardinal emphasised in his homily, \u201cwhile God’s mercy remains perpetually open.\u201d The invitation is precisely to continue on the path of \u201cconversion and hope\u201d inspired by the Holy Year.<\/p>\n
In the church dedicated to the memory of St Paul, the words from the Letter to the Romans resound with particular force: \u201chope does not disappoint\u201d, which accompanied the entire Jubilee.<\/p>\n
Much more than a mere \u201cmotto,\u201d these words are a true \u201cprofession of faith\u201d. The Apostle of the Gentiles entrusts these words to history in the awareness of the \u201chardship of life,\u201d having experienced imprisonment, persecution, and \u201capparent failure.\u201d Yet hope does not fail, because it is not based on fragile human abilities, but \u201con God\u2019s faithful love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entering the space of mercy<\/h2>\n
The Holy Door is therefore not merely a physical threshold, but a passageway to be crossed, leaving behind \u201cwhat weighs on the heart\u201d in order to enter \u201cthe space of mercy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Crossing it, the cardinal archpriest added, means renouncing all \u201cpretensions of self-sufficiency\u201d and humbly entrusting oneself to \u201cthe One who alone can give full meaning to our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The passage is also linked to the penitential journey, as a place of \u201creturn to communion\u201d and \u201ca sign of return to the Father’s house\u201d \u2014 a gesture that, over the years, has not lost its symbolic power: \u201cGod never closes the door to man; it is man who is called to pass through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waiting for salvation already given<\/h2>\n
Hope, but also faith and charity, have been described by Pope Francis as the \u201cheart of Christian life.\u201d The virtue linked to the 2025 Jubilee, says Cardinal Harvey, goes far beyond \u201cnaive optimism\u201d and any \u201cescape from reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he himself recalled at the opening of the Holy Door on 5 January 2025, it is not an \u201cempty word\u201d or a \u201cvague desire for things to go well.\u201d Rather, hope means waiting with confidence for the \u201csalvation already given\u201d and still on its way to fulfilment: a fulfilment that unfolds in human history, to be traversed with our gaze \u201cfixed on Christ,\u201d facing pain in the certainty that \u201cthe last word belongs to life and salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls \u00a0 (@VATICAN MEDIA) <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The courage to descend into the depths, free from chains<\/h2>\n
These are therefore anything but abstract aspirations, conveyed through the \u201cconversion of the heart\u201d and the liberating experience of forgiveness lived in the sacrament of Reconciliation.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis insisted on this aspect, and his successor, Pope Leo XIV, returned to it, Cardinal Harvey said, explaining that hope is nourished by finding the courage to \u201cgo deep,\u201d digging \u201cbeneath the surface of reality\u201d and breaking through the \u201ccrust of resignation\u201d. A fragile virtue, but one with the immense potential \u201cto change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cardinal again highlighted the figure of St Paul who, having experienced his own weakness, affirmed in his Second Letter to the Corinthians that it was precisely in this weakness, through his encounter with Christ, that he drew his strength. The chains of the prisons in which he was imprisoned \u2014 from Philippi to Jerusalem, from Caesarea to Rome \u2014 did not stifle his yearning for trust, consolation, and hope. \u201cNo prison can extinguish the inner freedom of those who live in Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
The greatest hope<\/h2>\n
The cardinal archpriest recalled that Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his encyclical Spe salvi<\/i> to hope, in which he emphasised how man needs \u201cmany hopes\u201d to illuminate his path: small and large, but all converging in the one great hope, God Himself, in His \u201chuman face,\u201d manifested as a \u201cliving and present reality\u201d that embraces the entire history of humanity.<\/p>\n
It is a love that sustains perseverance in daily life, even in a world marked by \u201cimperfection and limitation,\u201d because it guarantees the existence of what man ultimately desires: \u201clife that is truly life\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Cardinal James Michael Harvey during the Mass \u00a0 (@VATICAN MEDIA) <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The pilgrim\u2019s responsibility<\/h2>\n
Passing through the Holy Door thus becomes an invitation to \u201creturn to the world\u201d, bearing witness in the ordinary to the gift received.<\/p>\n
It is a journey that is both interior and concrete, passing through the recognition of one’s own limitations and the \u201cincompleteness of one’s gaze,\u201d entrusting oneself to the guidance of the Lord. It is a step-by-step process, as in prayer, trusting that each step is sufficient.<\/p>\n
Every pilgrim, Harvey emphasised, bears the responsibility of being a credible witness to what they have received, a \u201chumble but luminous sign of God’s presence\u201d in a world marked by \u201cdivisions and fears.\u201d<\/p>\n
The open doors of the heart<\/h2>\n
This is a burden that the saints have taken on, remaining faithful to the places entrusted to them in history and living the hope of everyday life, like the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, remembered in today’s liturgy: an ordinary life made up of silent work, \u201cmutual care\u201d and listening to God\u2019s will in the various circumstances of existence. Gestures repeated with love, and therefore capable of shining, sustained by a trust that \u201cperseveres even in darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the Holy Door closes,\u201d the cardinal concluded, \u201cmay the door of faith, charity and hope remain open in our hearts. May the door of mission remain open, because the world needs Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Holy Door of the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls was the third of the papal basilicas to be closed. The first was that of St Mary Major, on Christmas Day. On the morning of Saturday 27 December, it was the turn of St John Lateran. Pope Leo XIV will close the Holy Door of St Peter\u2019s Basilica on 6 January, the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.<\/p>\n
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The Mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls \u00a0 (@VATICAN MEDIA) <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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