VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis pushed open the great bronze doors of St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday December 8 to launch his Holy Year of Mercy, declaring that mercy trumps moralizing in his Catholic Church.

Francis stood in prayer on the threshold of the basilica’s Holy Door then walked through it, the first of an estimated 10 million faithful who will pass through over the course of the next year in a rite of pilgrimage dating back centuries.