ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV closed out 2025 on Wednesday with a prayer that the city of Rome might be a welcoming place for foreigners and fragile people, young and old.

Leo presided over a New Year’s Eve vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica, giving thanks for the 2025 Holy Year that brought millions of pilgrims to Rome in the once-every-quarter-century celebration of Christianity.

Leo will officially close out the Jubilee on Jan. 6. But in his homily, he thanked the city of Rome and the volunteers who helped keep crowds moving as they visited St. Peter’s and passed through its Holy Door.

He recalled that Pope Francis, who inaugurated the Holy Year on Dec. 24, 2024, had asked that Rome be a more welcoming place. “I would like it to be so again, and I would say even more so after this time of grace,” Leo said.

“What can we wish for Rome? That it may be worthy of its little ones. Of children, of lonely and fragile elderly people, of families who struggle to get by, of men and women who have come from afar hoping for a dignified life,” he said.

In the pews was Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri and other dignitaries.

In addition to the Jubilee, 2025 was momentous because of the papal transition after Francis died in April and cardinals elected history’s first pope from the United States.

The Vatican this week released statistics showing 3.2 million people had participated in Vatican liturgies, audiences, Angelus prayers and Jubilee audiences this year. The numbers were small in the first quarter, given Francis’ long hospitalization and illness, and then greatly shot up after Leo’s May election.

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