VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis opened the "Holy Door" of St Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve on Tuesday, launching the Jubilee year of Catholic celebrations set to draw more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome.
The 88-year-old pontiff, who has recently been suffering from a cold, was pushed in a wheelchair up to the huge, ornate bronze door and knocked on it, before the doors opened.
In a ceremony watched on screens by thousands of faithful outside in St Peter's Square, the Argentine pontiff went through the door followed by a procession, as the bells of the Vatican basilica rang out.
Over the next 12 months, Catholic pilgrims will pass through the door -- which is normally bricked up -- by tradition benefiting from a "plenary indulgence", a type of forgiveness for their sins.
Pope Francis then presided over the Christmas Eve mass in St Peter's, where he turned once again to the victims of war.
"We think of wars, of machine-gunned children, of bombs on schools and hospitals," he said in his homily.
The pope had drawn an angry response from Israel at the weekend for condemning the "cruelty" of Israel's strikes in Gaza that killed children.
He was due to deliver his traditional Christmas Day blessing, Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world), at midday on Wednesday.