Pope Leo formally brought the Catholic Church’s Holy Year to a close on Tuesday by sealing the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, urging Christians to carry forward the jubilee’s message by showing solidarity with the poor and welcoming migrants and foreigners with dignity.
Speaking during a Vatican ceremony, the pontiff said the unprecedented number of pilgrims who traveled to Rome for the jubilee should leave with a renewed sense of human responsibility, rather than viewing others through an economic lens.
Leo told worshippers that the Holy Year, which drew an estimated 33.5 million pilgrims, should inspire lasting change. He warned against reducing people to commodities in a global system driven by profit.
“After this year,” the pope asked, “will we be better able to recognize a pilgrim in the visitor, a seeker in the stranger, a neighbor in the foreigner?” He added that modern economies too often “try to profit from everything,” including human movement and aspiration.
Care for migrants has emerged as a defining priority of Leo’s early papacy, continuing a focus championed by his predecessor, Pope Francis.
Vatican and Italian officials said pilgrims traveled to Rome from 185 countries during the 2025 jubilee, with the largest numbers coming from Italy, the United States, Spain, Brazil, and Poland.
Read Also: Pope Leo Urges Ukraine–Russia Talks In Christmas Message
The Holy Year was historically rare, having been opened by Pope Francis and concluded by Pope Leo. Francis, who led the world’s 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church for 12 years, died in April. The last time a jubilee spanned two papacies was in 1700, when Innocent XII opened the Holy Year and Clement XI closed it.
Leo, the first pope from the United States, has pledged to continue several of Francis’ hallmark priorities, including outreach to gay Catholics and ongoing discussions about women’s roles in the Church.
In his remarks, Leo echoed Francis’ longstanding critique of global economic systems, lamenting that markets often turn “human yearnings of seeking, traveling and beginning again into a mere business.”
The next regular jubilee is not expected until 2033, when the Church may mark 2,000 years since the death of Jesus. Until then, Leo said, the true test of the Holy Year’s success will be how its message is lived out beyond Rome.