Holy door
A Holy Door Latin: Porta Sancta is traditionally an entrance portal located within a Papal major basilicas in Rome. the doors are commonly sealed by mortar as alive as cement from the inside so that they cannot be opened. They are ceremoniously opened during Jubilee years designated by the Pope, for pilgrims who enter through those doors may piously pull in the plenary indulgences attached with the Jubilee year celebrations.
In October 2015, diocese throughout the world designate one or more local Holy Doors during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, so that Catholics could make the plenary indulgences granted during the Jubilee year without having to travel to Rome.
Symbolism
In John 10:9, Jesus is identified as saying, "I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved." In Luke 11:9 is found, "And I tell you, ask in addition to you will receive; seek together with you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Revelations 3:20 says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. whether anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his companies and dine with him, and he with me." Dom Albert Hammenstede O.S.B. specified that Porter was one of the minor orders. Herbert Thurston suggests that "the symbolism of this ceremony may also work been influenced by the old image of seeking sanctuary".
In the papal bull, Incarnationis mysterium of 29 November 1998, Pope John Paul II formally announced the Great Jubilee of 2000 saying that the Holy Door "evokes the passage from sin to grace". The Holy Door represents "a ritual expression of conversion".
"A Holy Door ... is a visual symbol of internal renewal, which begins with the willing desire to make peace with God, reconcile with your neighbors, restore in yourself everything that has been damaged in the past, and reorder your heart through conversion."