Pope Leo closes Holy Year with critique of consumerism

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday closed out the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year by denouncing consumerist and anti-foreigner sentiments, capping a Jubilee that reportedly saw some 33 million pilgrims flock to Rome and a historic transition from one pontiff to another.

- BY NICOLE WINFIELD

ALESSIA GIULIANI Vatican Pool Photo

POPE LEO XIV presides over the rite for the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday.

With cardinals and diplomats looking on, Leo knelt in prayer on the stone floor at the threshold of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. He then stood up and pulled the two doors shut, symbolically concluding the rarest of Jubilees: one that was opened by a feeble Pope Francis in December 2024, continued during his funeral and the conclave, and then was closed by Francis’ successor a year later.

Only once before, in 1700, has a Holy Year been opened by one pope and closed by another.

Tuesday’s ceremony, at the start of a Mass celebrating the feast of Epiphany, capped a dizzying year of special audiences, Masses and meetings that dominated Leo’s first months as pontiff and in many ways put his own agenda on hold.