On August 28, 2022, Pope Francis will inaugurate the Holy Door at L’Aquila, Italy. /CNA/Daniel Ibanez
August 28, 2022, at 4:15 a.m. (CNA).
In L’Aquila, Italy, on Sunday, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of a 13th-century basilica for the first time in 728 years.
On August 28, the pope visited the Italian city approximately 70 miles northeast of Rome and took part in the Perdonanza Celestiniana, a centuries-old custom known as the Celestinian Forgiveness.
A significant turning point in the yearly celebration instituted by Pope Celestine V in 1294 was the opening of the Holy Door.
“L’Aquila has preserved the gift that Pope Celestine V bequeathed it for many years. It is my responsibility to remind everyone that only through kindness can every man and woman have a joyful life, the pope said in his homily during Mass at the Santa Maria di Collemaggio Basilica in L’Aquila.
“To be forgiven is to experience what is most like to the resurrection right now. By forgiving someone, you may help them transition from death to life, from the agonizing and guilty feeling to one of freedom and pleasure. May this church always be a place where we may find forgiveness and encounter the grace that helps us get back up and offers us a second opportunity.
At 7:50 a.m., Pope Francis left the Vatican for L’Aquila as part of a day excursion. He went to the cathedral of the city, which is currently being repaired after suffering significant damage in the more than 300-person fatal 2019 earthquake.
While inspecting the area of the destroyed church that is being rebuilt, the pope was wearing a hard helmet. In the town plaza in front of the cathedral, where there was a large audience that included local prisoners, he talked to relatives of earthquake victims. Pope Francis welcomed them from a wheelchair as the crowd applauded and waved Vatican flags.
While touring the 2019 earthquake-damaged L’Aquila church, Pope Francis sported a hard helmet. Catholic Media
First of all, Pope Francis thanked them for their testimony of faith: “You have set your eyes on Christ, crucified and risen, who with his love redeemed the foolishness of agony and death, despite the loss and sorrow, which belong to our faith as pilgrims.”
He continued, “And Jesus has brought you back into the arms of the Father, who does not allow even one tear to fall in vain, but collects them all in his loving heart.
Pope Francis visited the relatives of the victims before riding in the popemobile to the Santa Maria di Collemaggio Basilica in L’Aquila. There, he performed an outdoor Mass, read the Angelus, and unlocked the Holy Door.
The pope prayed for the people of Pakistan in his short Angelus address, where flash floods have killed more than 1,000 people and forced thousands more to flee their homes.
Pope Francis also prayed to the Virgin Mary for the world to experience “forgiveness and peace,” naming the Ukraine and all other war-torn nations in his request.
In the Angelus prayer he said after Mass in L’Aquila, Italy, Pope Francis prayed for world peace. In the Angelus prayer he said after Mass in L’Aquila, Italy, Pope Francis prayed for world peace.
The pope expressed his desire for L’Aquila, located in central Italy, to become a “capital of forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation” during his visit there.
He said, “This is how forgiveness, both accepted and offered, builds peace.”
Pope Celestine V, who ruled the Catholic Church for about five months until stepping down on December 13, 1294, is buried at L’Aquila. The pope, who was canonized in 1313, is interred at the Santa Maria di Collemaggio Basilica in L’Aquila.
Pope Francis’ journey to L’Aquila was announced by the Vatican in the spring, and unfounded rumors circulated that the trip may signal the 85-year-old pope’s resignation.
Vatican observers remembered that Benedict XVI had gone to the grave of Celestine V years earlier when he became the first pope to step down in over 600 years in 2013. On April 28, 2009, he visited the grave and deposited his pallium—a white wool vestment given to metropolitan archbishops—there. In retrospect, observers hypothesized that Benedict was expressing his desire to step down.
Pope Francis hailed Pope Celestine V for his bravery and humility in his sermon at L’Aquila.
Pope Francis emphasized that Celestine should not be remembered as a man of “no” for renouncing the pope, despite Dante Alighieri’s depiction of him as the man of “the great rejection.” Instead, Pope Francis said, Celestine should be remembered as a man of “yes.”
There is no other way to carry out God’s purpose than by taking the power of the humble, according to Pope Francis. The only people who truly believe in the Lord and understand his purpose are the humble, and precisely because of this, they look weak and losers in men’s eyes, but in fact they are the genuine victors.
The congregation recited the Litany of Saints after the Mass and then saw Pope Francis open the basilica’s Holy Door, making history. Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi of L’Aquila asserts that Pope Francis is the first pope in 728 years to open the Holy Door.
After the local mayor has read the bull of forgiveness, visiting cardinals have previously opened the Holy Door for the Celestinian Forgiveness. The papal bull was given by Celestine to L’Aquila, where it is preserved in an armored chapel above the town hall.
Celestine V’s bull of pardon granted a full pardon to everyone who visited the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio between Vespers on August 28 and sunset on August 29 after confessing and making amends for their misdeeds. A plenary indulgence is a gift given by the Catholic Church to absolve sinners of their temporal penalty. It is based on the merits of Jesus Christ, Mary, and all the saints.
At a period when indulgences were often associated with almsgiving, Celestine’s indulgence was remarkable in that it was open to everyone, regardless of class or income, and cost nothing other than one’s own repentance.
In L’Aquila, Italy, Pope Francis offers prayers at the grave of Pope Celestine V. Catholic Media
Pope Francis entered the basilica after opening the Holy Door and was rolled to Pope Celestine V’s grave. There, he took a moment to pray in silence in front of the bones of the pope who was canonized in 1313.
The Bible for today urges us to be meek and modest amid the egotistical attitude of the world. According to Pope Francis, humility does not include underestimating oneself but rather healthy realism that helps us see both our potential and our shortcomings.
“Humility draws our attention away from ourselves and toward God, who is able to do everything and who also secures for us what we are unable to attain on our own. “Those who believe may do everything (Mark 9:23).