The opening of the Holy Door will mark the beginning of the Jubilee Year of the Cathedral of Burgos next Saturday. The farewell of Msgr. Fidel Herráez Vegas and the arrival of the new archbishop, Msgr. Mario Iceta Gavicagogeascoa, make this Jubilee time in the archdiocese especially memorable.
The apostolic administrator, Bishop Fidel Herráez, will be in charge of opening the Holy Door of the Burgos Cathedral during this Jubilee Year granted by the daddy Francisco This year marks the VIII Centenary of the laying of the foundation stone of the headquarters in Burgos.
The opening ceremony of this Holy Year, evidently marked by the coronavirus epidemic, has also been the framework chosen by Fidel Herráez to say goodbye to the archdiocese, which he has pastored since 2015 until the acceptance of his resignation for reasons of age and the appointment of the hitherto bishop of Bilbao for the Castilian see.
A meaningful and diocesan celebration
As those responsible for the archdiocese of Burgos pointed out at the press conference for the opening of this Jubilee Year, all the archpriests of the diocese will attend next Saturday's celebration "with some of the most popular processional crosses. Their bearers will be given a luminary to travel to each of the territories and illuminate their celebrations around this Jubilee Year, making the diocese visible as one community of the faithful". A way to bring closer this celebration that has been greatly affected by the COVID19 pandemic.
The pandemic has caused the modification of the public entrance procession, which initially started from the Salesian monastery, and has been replaced by a small route from the Chapel of the Holy Christ, "A very significant gesture at this time, since it is attributed to the image his miraculous intervention against the plague that ravaged Burgos in 1405 and killed half the population. The epidemic ceased and the City Council vowed to go corporately every year, in thanksgiving, on September 14, a vow that was repeated in 1629 and is still fulfilled today.".
One of the initiatives that will take shape next Saturday will be the antiphonal composed by canon José Inocencio Fernándezorganist of the Cathedral, entitled I am the door. The Eucharist will also include the Jubilee Year hymn, composed by the Burgos native Pedro María de la Iglesia on the handwriting of the priest from Burgos Donato Miguel Gómez.
You are God's temple
The Jubilee Year of the Cathedral of Burgos was scheduled to begin on July 20, 2020, a date that had to be postponed due to the restrictions of the pandemic. However, the archdiocese has not abandoned the project of this Jubilee Year that "is an invitation to feel ourselves as living stones and temples of God in the midst of the world.". The motto is taken from the text of St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in which he reminds them: "You are God's temple and the Holy Spirit dwells in you" (1 Corinthians 3:16).
