By Currents News
From December 24, 2024, when it was first opened by the Holy Father, to February 7, 2025, over one million pilgrims have crossed the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Considering that the first months of the year are a slow season in Rome, these new numbers caught officials by surprise.
In fact, the numbers are likely to increase exponentially in the run-up to Easter, one the times of the year that the Eternal City receives the most tourists and pilgrims.
On Easter Sunday morning alone last year, for the Pope’s Urbi Et Orbi blessing, some 100,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
However, the two key moments for the Jubilee will undoubtedly be April 27, with the canonization of Carlo Acutis during the Jubilee of Adolescents, and the Jubilee of the Youth in late July, where about 2 million people are expected to attend.
Overall, more than 30 million pilgrims are expected to take part in the Holy Year. But Archbishop Rino Fisichella reminds pilgrims that the Jubilee is meant to be about faith and fellowship.
“It is not the numbers that make people say, ‘the Jubilee is successful,’” he tells Currents News. “Because if we were to count the numbers we will find that the hoteliers’ association says the Jubilee is going badly; if we ask the restaurateurs’ association it tells us it is going very well.
The data compiled is only from St. Peter’s Basilica and not from the other papal sites. The numbers are updated on a daily basis.