What to know for the Holy Year

The gesture that Pope Francis will make on 8th December 2015, the opening of the Holy Door, will symbolically inaugurate the Holy Year that will run until 20th November 2016. Rome will accommodate 30 million pilgrims, who will walk through the Holy Door of the Vatican and also those of the other main churches of the city, San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Paul's within the walls for the emblematic gesture that represents the passing from sin being remediated thanks to the divine mercy. Until the Holy Year of 1975, the Holy Door was bricked up inside and out and was then broken down with a hammer but in the year 2000 it was decided upon to simply open it.

Many followers will be at the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee of mercy. To participate in the event, we advise you to book your Rome Saint Peter's B&B early to enable you to get to the Vatican on foot to obtain the plenary indulgence, the total remission of all sins, which is allowed to those who take pilgrimage in Rome. Visiting one of the four main churches and participating in liturgic celebration, in Eucharistic adoration or in reciting the Rosary, will allow pilgrims the plenary indulgence. Pilgrimage in Rome for the Jubilee of Mercy must be taken to obtain the indulgence after having confessed all sins, Holy Communion must be taken and prayer following the intentions of Sommo Pontefice must follow. Penance works must also be followed (abstention of superfluous habits, for example) or of the works of mercy (give food to the hungry, visit the imprisoned, etc.), the latter in the name of mercy, the thread of the Jubilee, which is of request of Pope Francis. Moreover, one more thing to know about the Jubilee is that during the liturgic year, the Gospel of Luke shall be read as this is the apostle of mercy.