Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday closed out the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year, capping a yearlong celebration of Christianity that saw some 33 million pilgrims flock to Rome and a historic papal transition from one American pope to another.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, said 33,475,369 pilgrims ultimately took part in the jubilee — nearly 2 million more than the Vatican’s initial estimate of 31.7 million.

Pope Leo XIV has urged Vatican cardinals to put their ambitions of power and personal interests aside and work instead on building communion

Early estimates had expected that the Jubilee Year would bring 30 million to 35 million visitors to the Vatican. The city saw about 22 million people come to Rome in 2024, Roberto Gualtieri, mayor of Rome, said during the news conference.

He lamented that the markets turn some human yearnings into a mere business. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Pope Leo XIV used the Vatican’s final general audience of 2025 on Wednesday to invite Catholics to look back on the past year with gratitude and repentance, and to place what lies ahead in God’s hands.

The prefecture said that meant 2,913,800 people had encountered Pope Leo at the Vatican in 2025. The total for 2024, which was not a Holy Year, was close to 1.7 million people at audiences and prayers with Pope Francis.

The College of Cardinals assists the pope "through collegial action in consistories in which they are gathered by order of the Roman Pontiff who presides."

Mindful that Pope Francis had often used the traditional pre-Christmas address to the Roman Curia to deliver some hard messages, Vatican officials had waited in expectation to see what Pope Leo would say.

Pope Leo closed the Catholic Church's Holy Year on Tuesday by sealing shut the special "Holy Door" in St. Peter's Basilica and urging Christians worldwide to help those in need and treat foreigners with kindness.