Pope Francis kicks off Holy Year of Mercy by opening Vatican door, urging forgiveness above judgment

On Tuesday, Pope Francis pushed open the huge bronze Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica and walked through, followed carefully by a frail Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI. Some 10 million people are expected to follow them over the next 12 months of the pope's Holy Year of Mercy.

Pope Francis announced the jubilee year in March, and on Tuesday he explained why at a rain-soaked Mass before 50,000 in St. Peter's Square. "How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy," Francis said, reinforcing a major theme of his papacy. "We have to put mercy before judgment, and in any event God's judgment will always be in the light of his mercy."

Jubilee years traditionally encourage pilgrimages to the Vatican, and an estimated 25 million made the journey during the last jubilee year, 2000. This time, Pope Francis told all Catholic cathedrals around the world to open their Holy Door — usually bricked up — so pilgrims don't have to travel to Rome. This Year of Mercy — or "revolution of tenderness," as the pope called it on Tuesday — begins Dec. 8 and ends Nov. 20, 2016

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Security was tight at the Vatican and throughout Rome, as the Vatican was named as a possible terrorist target after the Paris attacks. Along with the 5,000 extra police and military personnel stationed around Rome, Italy imposed a no-fly zone over Roman skies.