What and where are the Jubilee Holy Doors?

During the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, millions of pilgrims have entered Rome’s Holy Doors. According to the Vatican, “Passing through the Holy Door expresses the decision to follow and be guided by Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd.” For pilgrims, the act is not just an experience of entering a sacred space, but one of profound prayer and penitence.

When Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, and His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America recently passed through one of Rome’s Holy Doors, the moment seemed to take on added significance, as one pilgrim shared with Jersey Catholic:

As the Cardinal and Archbishop stepped through the Holy Door of St. John Lateran — opened for the Jubilee Year of Hope — their pilgrimage became a living symbol of patient faith and the enduring hope for full reconciliation between East and West. As Pope Francis reminded us, hope does not disappoint and must be accompanied by patience, a virtue especially vital in the ecumenical journey toward full communion among all Christian Churches.”

– Fr. Anthony Palombo, priest secretary to Cardinal Tobin.

Cardinal Tobin Archbishop Elpidophoros through door — *Cardinal Tobin and Archbishop Elpidophoros pass through the Holy Door of St. John Lateran Basilica on July 16, 2025. (Photos courtesy of Fr. Anthony Palombo)*

A pilgrimage and an adventure

Cardinal Tobin and Archbishop Elpidophoros have been leading an ecumenical group of Roman Catholic, Byzantine Catholic, and Greek Orthodox pilgrims on a historic journey “From Old Rome to New Rome.”

In the days following their passage through the Holy Door of St. John Lateran Basilica, the pilgrims were received by Pope Leo XIV at his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, journeyed to Constantinople (today known as Istanbul) to meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians, and visited the ancient city that gave birth to the Nicene Creed. They have also marveled at the beauty of many Catholic and Orthodox holy places and prayed together for world peace and Christian unity.

For these pilgrims, the passage through the Holy Doors of Rome marked not the end of a journey, but another step on a continuing adventure of faith and friendship.

Five Holy Doors

In his Bull of Indiction for the 2025 Jubilee Year, ‘Spes non confundit’ (‘Hope does not disappoint’), Pope Francis designated four Holy Doors for pilgrims at Rome’s four major basilicas: St. Peter’s Basilica, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. The Pope also expressed his desire to open a Holy Door in a prison, ‘to offer prisoners a concrete sign of closeness’.”

On December 26, 2024, four months before his death, Pope Francis fulfilled that goal by opening a Holy Door inside Rome’s Rebiba Prison Complex. Unlike the other four doors, that one is accessible only to inmates and prison staff.

According to the Church, the Holy Door is “the most powerful sign of the Jubilee.” It is the opening of the Holy Door by the pope that marks the beginning of a Jubilee year. In January, on the Feast of the Epiphany, Pope Leo will pass through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica and close it to end this special year of grace. All the Holy Doors will then be sealed at the rear with masonry until they are opened again at the start of the next Jubilee year.

Unlike the special 2015-16 Jubilee Year of Mercy, no other dioceses around the world have Holy Doors for the 2025 Jubilee Year. Instead, bishops were asked to designate diocesan cathedrals or other significant churches as places of pilgrimage and prayer.

In the Archdiocese of Newark, Catholics can receive a plenary indulgence by visiting one of four designated pilgrimage churches during the Jubilee Year: the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, Saint Helen in Westfield, Saint Joseph of the Palisades in West New York, and Saint Pius X in Old Tappan.

The Jubilee Indulgence can also be granted by undertaking spiritual works of mercy and penance outlined in the Archdiocese’s guidelines.

Learn more by visiting the Jubilee 2025 page.

Featured image: The four Jubilee Holy Doors located at the Basilicas of (from left to right) St. John Lateran, St. Peter, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. (Door images by Lawrence OP/CC BY-SA 3.0 and Dnalor 01/CC BY-SA 3.0, Collage by Jersey Catholic)