Next Sunday, November 20, at 10:00, the closing of the Holy Door of Mercy in St. Peter\´s Square in Rome will take place. This door was opened December 8, 2015, when Pope Francis, Pontiff of the Catholic Church, launched the Holy Year of Mercy. One of the goals of this Holy Year has been to make more evident the Mission of the Catholic Church as a witness and practitioner of the mercy of God in the world. The Jubilee that brought together dioceses and Christian communities around the world gave special attention to the most marginalized and excluded from society and called on every Christian to experience God\´s mercy and to be an expression of this mercy.

For Pope Francis, the symbolic management of ‘doors’ - thresholds, walkways, borders - has become crucial. The door must protect, certainly, but not reject. The door should not be forced. On the contrary, permission is asked, because hospitality shines in freedom and darkens on the arrogance of the invasion. The door is opened frequently to see if there is someone outside who waits and does not have the courage, perhaps not even the strength, to knock. The opening of the Holy Door is meant to symbolize the "pilgrimage" and "opening" of the heart. According to the Pontiff of the Catholic Church, the Holy Year of Mercy was an invitation to joy and forgiveness, a moment to rediscover God\´s presence and his tenderness. Father Manuel Morujão, a Jesuit priest, who was one of the "missionaries of mercy", who, when interviewed on the show, Church, on November 16, stressed that the world lives in "need of mercy", and it would become unbearable if there was no tolerance, understanding, acceptance, that is, if we did not live and practice the works of mercy in the most diverse spaces of the social sphere.

The Holy Door of St. Peter\´s Basilica was the first to be opened and will be the last to be closed. This event will be marked by a Eucharistic Celebration presided over by the Pope, and it will bring together thousands of believers. It is expected that the symbolic gesture of passing through the Holy Door, the door of God\´s mercy, forms the hearts of Christians to receive God\´s forgiveness and give, in turn, mercy, welcoming all those who knock on the door of their homes and hearts.

Ieda Tomazini