Pope Francis inaugurated his Holy Year at Rome’s main prison on Thursday, bringing a message of hope to inmates and involving them in the Catholic Church’s once every quarter-century celebration that is expected to bring about 32 million pilgrims to Rome.

As the Pope left the Rebibbia prison, he stopped to greet the 300 inmates and staff who had waited outside of the crowded chapel on the cold December morning.

Wearing red vestments for the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Pope Francis knocked on the door of the church in Rome's Rebibbia prison complex and walked over its threshold.