“Many in recent months have set out to look for differences between Pope Francis and Pope Leo, whereas it is instead beautiful to experience the great gift of unity and continuity in the succession.” Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St Mary Major, presides today at 6 p.m. over the closing of the Holy Door, the first to be sealed until the next ordinary Jubilee. He reflects on an extraordinary Holy Year, marked by an epoch-making passage: two pontificates within a single Jubilee.
Your Eminence, this Holy Year, proclaimed by Pope Francis and concluded under Pope Leo XIV, appears as a time of continuity marked by hope. What common trait do you see between the two pontificates?
The Jubilee of 2025 has truly been an exceptional and distinctive Holy Year. Two pontificates within a single Holy Year. We should remember that only in 1700 did the Church experience something similar, with a Jubilee opened by one Pontiff and then closed by his successor. At St Mary Major, this Holy Year has taken on an even more special significance, given that Pope Francis chose it as the place of his burial.
Many have sought to highlight the differences between the two pontificates…
Many in recent months have set out to look for differences between Pope Francis and Pope Leo, whereas it is instead beautiful to experience the great gift of unity and continuity in the succession. Clearly, every Pontiff brings his own personal characteristics and his own experience of life and pastoral ministry. Yet everything holds together because the Church lives in communion and in a dimension of constant renewal that reinterprets, over time, the heritage of faith and places it at the service of the present, above all through the Magisterium entrusted to the Holy Father, who is the pastor and guide of the Church, always, whatever his name, background or linguistic accent. Always faithful to the inheritance received, and yet always new.
Does reading the transition between the two pontificates risk being conditioned by overly human categories?
This is often what confuses those who attempt to read the transitions between different pontificates using purely human categories – and at times polemical or ideological ones.
We are experiencing a continuity marked by hope, the great theme of this Jubilee Year, so decisive in the age in which we are living and which so often challenges our hearts harshly.
Let us think of the wars that wound our humanity in so many, too many, parts of the world.
What words have the two Pontiffs offered to this time marked by wars?
Authentic and credible words of hope, and they did so by recalling their ultimate foundation: the Lord Jesus, God made man out of love for all of us, for all peoples, as we shall remember in a special way in these Christmas days. The transition between the two pontificates has been marked by this credible and concrete hope, as concrete as the flesh assumed by the Lord in becoming man for our salvation. Is there any more beautiful news than this? And this is the news that matters, and which certainly does not change from one Pope to another. The rest are human judgements.
One Jubilee, two pontificates
The Jubilee of 2025 is one of the rare Holy Years celebrated under two Pontiffs. A similar precedent dates back to 1700, opened by Innocent XII and concluded by Clement XI. The Papal Basilica of St Mary Major played a central role, also because of Pope Francis’s decision to choose it as his burial place.
In the Magisterium of Leo XIV, the idea of a faith that does not withdraw from history but is translated into responsibility emerges strongly. How do you interpret this approach?
I must indeed say that Pope Leo is persistently calling us back to the idea of a faith that lives and acts within history, not outside it and certainly not against it. Precisely for this reason, I believe he is helping us to return to the foundations of our creed. It does not seem accidental to me that his first apostolic journey was to Nicaea and that it was marked by ecumenism and dialogue among religions. Nor does it seem accidental that he constantly speaks about the pillars of Catholicism: the proclamation of the centrality of Christ, of God made man, the ecclesial dimension of faith, and the Sacraments.
Does speaking about these foundations mean withdrawing from the great challenges of our time?
Quite the opposite. Speaking about this to humanity today does not mean withdrawing from the great challenges of our time – economic, social, environmental and so forth – but rather offering these challenges a truly meaningful word and a concrete contribution to their solutions. In this, the Church continues to be a sign of contradiction: it appears to be out of step with the times and yet inhabits time fully, always with a thought and a proclamation that leave their mark.
In what sense is the Church contemporary with the human heart?
Looking closer, there is no subject more contemporary with the human heart than the Church, and Pope Leo XIV knows this well and is interpreting it every day through his Magisterium and his addresses, which are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for all of us:
From artificial intelligence to disarmament, from the climate emergency to the educational one, there is truly no urgent issue with which the Holy Father is not engaging and to which he does not also invite us, the faithful, to respond.
What concrete fruit of the Jubilee should remain when the Holy Door closes and daily life resumes?
If we were to resume our daily lives on these foundations once the Holy Door is closed, I believe that would already be a great achievement. Indeed, perhaps it would be everything.
In recent months, Rome has been crossed by very different people, it has witnessed faith, tourism, expectations and fragility. What have you seen in the Basilica of St Mary Major?
On the one hand, millions of pilgrims who passed through the Holy Door with genuine devotion and not infrequently offering moving testimonies of their faith, particularly those who came from the most peripheral areas of the world. The first takeaway, therefore, is that
Faith, which overly superficial and often ill-intentioned sociological analyses had already declared weakened, is enjoying very good health.
On the other hand, I also saw the encounter between these crowds and those who visited the Basilica for other reasons, for tourism or out of curiosity. An enriching encounter, which I am sure prompted reflection.
Did you put in place any particular initiatives to respond to these different needs?
At St Mary Major, we wanted to listen to everyone through a daily “spiritual presence”, ensured in rotation by our Canons. I myself tried to dedicate a few hours weekly to this service and I must say that many, truly many, people told me they had been struck by what they felt in their hearts through the images of those brothers and sisters gathered in prayer, or joyful in the animation of the Masses celebrated each day in our chapels.
What kind of experience was it for those who passed through the Holy Door?
For some, it was like the resurfacing of a faith they had perhaps lived as children and then set aside. For others, it was
A disruptive encounter with a new experience, which even opened up the possibility of conversion for them.
What fruits do you glimpse in all this?
Only the Lord knows, of course, what will become of all this, but I am certain that seeds of genuine good have been sown, which will know how to blossom even amid the harshness of this historical moment. I say this also because I still have before my eyes the long queues at the confessionals every day. How can one fail to see in all this the gift of grace that the Jubilee has brought with it?
(Foto Vatican Media/SIR)
How do you read our time?
Complex, fragile, uncertain, and yet the human heart still responds to the call of an authentic life that only a journey of faith can offer. This seems to me something beautiful that should give us hope and that must remind us, priests, that we should never tire of welcoming everyone, following the example of Our Lord, and that we should offer everyone a meaningful word about their lives, well before judging them.
In a society marked by conflicts, inequalities and a growing distrust of institutions, what value can a symbolic gesture such as the opening and closing of a Holy Door have today, even for those who do not believe?
An essential value. It is, first of all, a Door that has opened before everyone, without distinction. In these months, no one was asked to give proof of their belief in order to pass through it. The Holy Door was there for everyone. And everyone passed through it in the exact condition of life or thought that characterised them. I still hear Pope Francis’s insistence with that “Everyone! Everyone!” that he loved to repeat.
Why can the Church truly be called universal?
The Church is the only institution under this heaven that is truly universal, also in the sense of its capacity and desire to embrace and to enter into dialogue with each person. On the other hand, we must never forget that the Holy Door is the very image of Christ and He certainly excludes no one from His love.
Now the Holy Doors of the Basilicas are being closed, but the door of God’s mercy never closes.
That door will always remain open, even after 6 January. I believe there is no greater joy than recognising this, and I am convinced that our world truly needs an announcement of this kind.
When the Holy Door closes, what is the most demanding legacy this time leaves to the Church of Rome?
Exactly what I said earlier. The Jubilee, from an ecclesial point of view, leaves us – beginning with us pastors – with the task of constantly, credibly and joyfully proclaiming a hope that has the face of a God made man and that burns with love for each one of us. We must not tire of repeating in our parishes, from our altars, in our catechetical classrooms, in every place where we are and do Church, that this is our faith. We must not be afraid to bear witness to it before the world. We must not shrink from our commitment to conversion and to converting.
And for those who hold leadership roles in public and social life?
From a secular point of view, I hope there will be renewed awareness that faith remains an essential human experience. It deserves respect; it deserves protection.
It is a public good, in the proper sense, and it is a good that contributes to the difficult construction of a society and a world oriented towards equity, justice, and the authentic and integral development of every living being.
What do you concretely hope for?
I would truly like all of us to feel this call to responsibility in the same way and that everyone may bring into play, within the virtuous distinction of roles and responsibilities and in a spirit of healthy cooperation, the best energies and all available resources, so that every man and every woman may live their faith to the full, also in its capacity to serve as an instrument for the growth of civil society. We will all gain from this, believers and non-believers alike.