By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service • Posted December 2, 2024

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — To help people who cannot travel to Rome but want to pray at the tomb of St. Peter and cross the threshold of the Holy Door, St. Peter’s Basilica is installing new webcams.

Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, communications director for the basilica, told reporters Nov. 25 that Pope Francis will inaugurate the new webcams at the tomb of St. Peter and on the Holy Door Dec. 2.

Some 30 million pilgrims and visitors are expected to pass through the Holy Door during the Jubilee Year that opens on Christmas Eve and closes Jan. 6, 2026, Father Fortunato said.

The pilgrimage, he said, will be an experience “that billions of people will be able to share remotely through a webcam positioned at the tomb of St. Peter to approach the mystery of the fisherman who had himself crucified upside down to be able to stand with his head held high before his Lord, giving rise to a pilgrimage that has continued uninterrupted for two millennia.”

Vatican Media operates a webcam on the top of the colonnade surrounding St. Peter’s Square. The governing office of Vatican City state also had webcams on the top of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica and one focused on the tomb of St. John Paul II, but they no longer function.

Meeting reporters Nov. 25, Father Fortunato also presented the first edition of Piazza San Pietro, a new magazine he is directing on behalf of the basilica. It is named after St. Peter’s Square, he said, because the magazine hopes to be a place of welcome and encounter like the square is.

A unique feature of the magazine, which will be available in Italian, Spanish and English, is that Pope Francis will respond to a letter from a reader each month, Father Fortunato said.

Letters can be sent to lettere@piazzasanpietro.va for consideration, he said.

In the December issue, Pope Francis responds to Olivia, a grandmother in Bergamo, Italy, who wonders what she should do about her 5-year-old granddaughter who has not been baptized.

“Baptism is a great gift that we can give little ones because it is the first of the sacraments; it is the door that allows Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to live, to make a dwelling place in us,” the pope responded. “But baptism cannot be imposed on parents who do not want it for their children.”

Pope Francis recommended that Olivia and her husband, “with hope, meekness and charity,” talk to their daughter and her husband, but not push the idea of having their daughter baptized.

“Gratuitous love is more persuasive than many words,” the pope responded. “Love for God plants seeds for the future, for friendship, for searching for him, and it is not for us to know the timing.”