Pope inaugurates newly restored bronze doors on Apostolic Palace

Published: 2007-10-12

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI received new keys to the Apostolic Palace Oct. 12, moments after officially inaugurating the palace's restored bronze doors. "I express my heartfelt wish that those who enter through the bronze doors may feel, from the moment of their entrance, welcomed by the pope's embrace," he told Vatican officials, Swiss Guards, the restorers and the benefactors who paid for the two-year project. The doorway is more than 24 feet tall and 13 feet wide, according to the Vatican press office. The doors, which have a steel core between the interior wood panel and the exterior bronze panel, weigh 12,130 pounds. U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley, pro-grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, and members of the Catholic chivalric order greeted the pope. The knights, along with an Italian bank, funded the restoration. The doors, made from wood and bronze taken from ancient Roman temples, were put in place by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, the architect of the colonnade surrounding St. Peter's Square. The bronze doors are at the northwest end of the colonnade.

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