By Marlene Quaroni - Florida Catholic
Archbishop Thomas Wenski opens the Holy Door at the northwest entrance to St. Mary Cathedral. (MARLENE QUARONI | FC)
Archbishop Thomas Wenski enters through the Holy Door at St. Mary Cathedral. (MARLENE QUARONI | FC)
Alessandra Lanza enters through the Holy Door on her knees. (MARLENE QUARONI | FC)
Rosa Hilda Serrano entered through the holy door on her knees and continued to a pew at the front of the church. She is carrying a walking stick. (MARLENE QUARONI | FC)
Andy Massagee, maintenance director at St. Anthony's, guards the holy door until the dedication for the Holy Year of Mercy. "I'm the holy seal," he joked. (JIM DAVIS | FC)
Father Michael Grady, right, and seminarian Ryan Saunders prepare to open the Holy Door at St. Anthony Church. (COURTESY PHOTO | GAIL THOMAS)
Father Michael Grady, pastor at St. Anthony's, reads the decree establishing the church as one of six sites for Holy Doors in the archdiocese. (JIM DAVIS | FC)
Father Michael Grady blesses the Holy Door at St. Anthony's. (JIM DAVIS | FC)
Amy Mergler and her daughter, Elizabeth, exit beneath a sign carved for the Holy Year. Looking on is Ryan Saunders, a parishioner at St. Anthony's and a seminarian at St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach. (JIM DAVIS | FC)
Papal keys and an inscription adorn the entrance of the designated Holy Door at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Deerfield Beach. (JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC)
Papal keys and an inscription adorn the entrance of the designated Holy Door at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Deerfield Beach. (JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC)
Father Kenneth Whittaker, pastor at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Deerfield Beach, blesses the Holy Door at his parish. Next to the door are papal keys and an inscription commemorating the Jubilee Year of Mercy. (JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC)
Father Kenneth Whittaker walks through the designated Holy Door at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Deerfield Beach. (JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC)
Holy Door at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Deerfield Beach. The door is one of six designated across the Archdiocese of Miami in honor of the Year of Mercy. (JONATHAN MARTINEZ | FC)
View of the Holy Door at the Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Key West. The archway proclaiming the Jubilee Year of Mercy is double-sided for the entrance and the exit of all. (COURTESY | Senses at Play Photography Studio)
View of the images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary that adorn the archway to the Jubilee Year of Mercy at the Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Key West. The images were created by Cameron Smith of North Carolina. (COURTESY | Senses at Play Photography Studio)
View of a detail of the Holy Door at the Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Key West. Created by Felix Pradas-Bergnes, the threshold panels at the front door are copies of two panels from St. Peter Basilica's Holy Doors. The artist explained his design to Father John Baker this way: "You might notice that the threshold panels ... are nearly invisible from the street. That is a good thing. I am pleased that they do not increase the visual articulation of the basilica's facade, but are seen as you come closer and only from certain angles. That is ideal in design, elements that reveal themselves gradually as you approach or move along a path. Come to think of it, it is just like God's revelation." (COURTESY | Senses at Play Photography Studio)
Children from the Basilica School of of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Key West enter through the Year of Mercy archway in the church. Father John Baker opened the Holy Door at the basilica, one of the six archdiocesan pilgrimage sites for the extraordinary Jubilee Year, the weekend of Dec. 12 and 13, third Sunday of Advent. (COURTESY PHOTO | ROBERT WRIGHT)
View of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami before the opening of the Holy Door Dec. 13. The shrine is one of six pilgrimage churches in the archdiocese. (ROBERTO AGUIRRE | FC)
View of the Holy Door at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami, one of six pilgrimage churches in the archdiocese. (ROBERTO AGUIRRE | FC)
Father Juan Rumin Dominguez, center, prays before officially opening the Holy Door at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami, one of six pilgrimage churches in the archdiocese during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. (ROBERTO AGUIRRE | FC)
Father Juan Rumin Dominguez, center, prepares to bless the entrance and congregation after opening the Holy Door at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami Dec. 13. The shrine is one of six pilgrimage churches in the archdiocese during the Jubilee Year of Mercy.(ROBERTO AGUIRRE | FC)
People line up to enter through the Holy Door after it was opened Dec. 13 at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami. The shrine is one of six pilgrimage churches in the archdiocese during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. (ROBERTO AGUIRRE | FC)
View of the Holy Door at Gesu Parish, in downtown Miami. (ROCÍO GRANADOS | LVC)
A Gesu parishioner enters through the Holy Door after it was opened by Jesuit Father Eduardo Alvarez, the church's pastor. (ROCÍO GRANADOS | LVC)
Sign marking the Holy Door at Gesu Parish, in downtown Miami. (ROCÍO GRANADOS | LVC)
Jesuit Father Eduardo Alvarez, pastor of Gesu Church, stands by the Holy Door after opening it at Mass Dec. 13. (ROCÍO GRANADOS | LVC)
MIAMI | The faithful streamed through the holy doors which Archbishop Thomas Wenski had just ceremoniously opened at St. Mary Cathedral.
They came in response to the church’s invitation for all to participate in the worldwide Holy Year, the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Most crossed the symbolic open door to forgiveness on their feet, but some entered more piously.
Alessandra Lanza, Rosa Hilda Serrano, and her husband, Juan Miguel Serrano, crossed through the holy doors at the cathedral’s northwest entrance moving slowly forward on their knees.
“It was an act of repentance,” said Lanza, who recently went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Rome, where she climbed the holy steps at the Basilica of St. John Lateran on her knees. It’s a tradition that indulgences are granted to those who devoutly ascend the steps on their knees after confession and Communion.
The opening of the holy doors took place on the third weekend in Advent, Gaudete Sunday, a day of rejoicing because the birth of Jesus is near.
Rosa Serrano carried a walking stick in her right hand, representing faith, and rosary beads in her left hand as she made her way to a front pew in the church. Serrano said that she and her husband used the walking sticks when they participated in a pilgrimage across northern Spain to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of St. James the Great are buried.
“We are taking the steps that the Church asks in order to receive indulgences,” said Serrano. “Everyone needs to make the effort for heavenly salvation.”
The Serranos said they have great faith in God. Juan Serrano said that he was born dead, but his grandmother begged St. John the Apostle to intercede and spare her grandson’s life, pledging if he lived the boy would be named John. Miraculously, he survived.
The Serranos met in El Salvador, where Archbishop Oscar Romero presided at their wedding 39 years ago. The archbishop died in 1980 after an assassin shot him. He was canonized this year.
Next year, the Serranos will go on a pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land. Like Lanza, they plan to ascend the holy steps on their knees at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
Aside from St. Mary Cathedral, five other churches opened their holy doors the weekend of Dec. 12 and 13: Our Lady of Mercy in Deerfield Beach, Gesu and the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami, St. Anthony in Fort Lauderdale and the Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea in Key West.
Pictures of those door openings are included in the photo album above. Read the archbishop's homily here.
