The Apostolic Penitentiary has granted Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, Metropolitan Archbishop of L’Aquila, an additional year of Indulgence (from January 1 to December 24, 2024) for those who visit the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio.
After the great gift that Pope Francis made to the Church of L’Aquila in the aftermath of his visit to the capital of Abruzzo in 2022, extending the Indulgence of Forgiveness granted by Saint Celestine V for a whole year (the Year of Mercy), L’Aquila is now preparing for the great Jubilee of 2025, with a further year of Grace dedicated to Forgiveness and, as requested by Pope Francis, to Prayer .
In fact, the request of the Cardinal reads: “ Taking into account the many spiritual benefits that your concession has produced in the People of God who during the extraordinary Celestinian Year have gathered in large numbers in the Basilica of S. Maria di Collemaggio with organized or spontaneous pilgrimages, and above all now, in view of the Jubilee of 2025, closely linked to the Celestinian one, I am asking to grant the Plenary Indulgence for the whole of the Year 2024, to those who, having repented and confessed, will visit the Basilica of S. Maria di Collemaggio ”.
“ A precious opportunity, therefore, with which to prepare in the best possible way – continues Cardinal Petrocchi in the letter – for the celebration of the Jubilee that, with the opening of the Holy Door of the Vatican Basilica, on Christmas night 2024, Pope Francis will grant to the Universal Church ”.
Therefore, as recently hoped by Archbishop Petrocchi, L’Aquila continues to carry out the project that Pope Francis entrusted to it, that is, to make L’Aquila the ” Capital of Forgiveness “, a definition that honors the ecclesial and civil community of L’Aquila, but at the same time makes it responsible and commits it, outlines its identity and also clarifies its mission.
When the Great Jubilee of the Second Millennium was celebrated in 2000, the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio was closed for restoration and, despite the good will of the Archdiocese, L’Aquila was excluded from the pilgrimages of those who came to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence.
Now, after the reopening of the Basilica and following the work carried out by the municipal administration to create a suitable space outside, in front of the Holy Door, to follow the Rites of the Holy Door during the Celestinian Pardon and the celebration presided over by Pope Francis in 2022, Cardinal Petrocchi, in full communion with the Coadjutor Archbishop Monsignor Antonio d’Angelo, is setting in motion a series of initiatives that are not only religious, but also cultural, to ensure that the Church of L’Aquila is ready to welcome pilgrims .
A new opportunity also to relaunch, in view of the Holy Year, religious tourism which has seen a significant increase in attendance in the last two years, especially for the Year of Mercy and for the Celestinian Forgiveness, but which, precisely for the Jubilee of 2025, requires new actions by religious and civil institutions to create useful spaces to welcome the many pilgrims who will arrive.
