VATICAN CITY - The 2025 Jubilee year of Catholic celebrations drew over 33 million pilgrims to Rome, the Vatican said, as the last of the faithful passed through the "Holy Door" of St Peter's Basilica.
Pope Leo XIV will close the basilica's ornate bronze doors in a ceremony on Tuesday, just over 12 months after they were opened by his predecessor Pope Francis, who died in April.
"The entire world came to Rome. Pilgrims arrived from 185 countries" for 35 major events, including a festival for young Catholics and the canonisation of the first millennial saint, said Archbishop Rino Fisichella.
The numbers showed the centuries-old institution was still "a dynamic church", he told a press conference.
It will also be remembered as a rare two-pope Jubilee. The last time a pope died during a "Holy Year" was in 1700.
Despite torrential rain outside, thousands of pilgrims streamed through the Holy Door at St Peter's on Monday, many pausing to make the sign of the cross.
By tradition, going through it allows them to benefit from a "plenary indulgence", a type of forgiveness for their sins.
"It's really a grace. And I feel great," said Josie Aguirre, 67, from the Philippines.
"It was emotional, the feeling was really great. The jubilee door is a way to renew people's faith, it brings people together," she told AFP.
Organised by the Church every 25 years, the Jubilee is a period of reflection and penance for the world's over 1.4 billion Catholics.
Some 60 percent of pilgrims who attended came from Europe, and 16 percent from North America, the Vatican said.
There was a sharp rise in arrivals following the election in May of Leo, the Church's first US pope, it said.
Significant areas of Rome were spruced up for the Jubilee, including monuments such as the Trevi Fountain.
Critics had warned the Eternal City could struggle to cope with millions more visitors, when it already suffered from over-tourism, and public transport is patchy at best.
But Rome's Mayor Roberto Gualtieri told journalists the Italian capital had risen admirably to the occasion in what was a "boom year" for tourists too.
The Jubilee's "main legacy" was a renewed "confidence in the possibility of improving and transforming the city", after "a very long period of stagnation or even decline", he said.
In addition to that of St Peter's, Holy Doors were opened in Rome's three major basilicas during the Jubilee year.