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21 December 2015
A Holy Door opened in FCO
On the occasion of the Jubilee of Mercy, a Holy Door was opened in the Chapel of Terminal 3

The intercontinental airport of Fiumicino has its Holy Door . The ceremony attended by Monsignor Gino Reali, Bishop of the Diocese of Porto and Santa Rufina, with the participation of the chaplain of the airport, father Giorgio Rizzieri, and father Lambert Tomanou, head of the civil aviation section of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People. Among the civil authorities  the Director of Airport Security, Massimo Ilariucci, the Deputy Mayor of Fiumicino, Anna Maria Anselmi and the Director of the V Section of Air Police of Fiumicino, Tiziano Vetro.

Why a Holy Door in the airport? Because, underlined Bishop Reali, "Leonardo da Vinci airport, which is the main access to our country and a crossroads of mankind that, in the frenzy of the day, pass through it incessantly, is also an important workplace for thousands of operators who, in a variety of tasks, ensure a precious, sensitive and tiring service. In the Jubilee of Mercy this dynamic city-within-a-city plays an essential role for the reception of pilgrims, and becomes even more a home for many of those who are professionally involved in it".

"Leonardo da Vinci airport in Fiumicino came spontaneously to my mind as a place - said Mons. Reali so articulated and so significant by its very nature, as a 'special place' in which the gift of Jubilee had to be offered. This jubilee place is the open hand of the Church on his city that want to offer a 'hub' of Mercy to give relief after the daily toil or the consolation in personal sorrows, or to simply respond to that desire for peace which the traveller is often longing for".