Pilgrims from around the world have been passing through the open Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica this week.

Pope Francis opens the Holy Year 2025, continues calls for peace, and addresses global challenges, emphasizing love, hope, and dialogue amid crises

Pope Francis has opened the great Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. The ceremony kicks off the 2025 Holy Year.

In his Angelus address on Dec. 26, Pope Francis reflected on Stephen’s last words as he was being stoned to death: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Marking the Holy Year of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis opened a Holy Door at a prison in Rome on Thursday, offering a message of hope and forgiveness to inmates. "Do not lose hope, that is the message I want to give you,

Pope Francis inaugurated his Holy Year at Rome’s main prison on Thursday, bringing a message of hope to inmates and involving them in the Catholic Church’s once every quarter-century celebration that is expected to bring about 32 million pilgrims to Rome.

I mean stories which were important but which didn’t generate a lot of buzz, either in the mainstream media or the specialized Catholic press. It’s not that they weren’t covered, simply that the volume wasn’t proportionate to the merits of the story.

The Pope on Tuesday celebrated the inauguration of the Jubilee Year by symbolically opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, noting that the Jubilee Year’s principal message is that of hope and forgiveness.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was 17 years old when he first received his vocation to become a priest. It happened on Sept. 21, 1953 — the beginning of spring in Buenos Aires — during a spontaneous visit to the confessional,

Pope Francis, who is 88 and was born in Argentina, gave the Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday, and urged kindness and hope in his message for 2025