PORTALIÈ, Eugène. - Jesuit, theologian, b. at Mende on 3 Jan. 1852, d. at Amélie-les-Bains (Toulouse) on 20 Apr. 1909.
He entered the Order in 1867 and was professor of scholastic theology at Uclés and Vals from 1888 to 1899; thereafter, from 1885 until his death, he taught positive theology at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse. A hallmark of his teaching—highly personal and fervent—was a clear exposition coupled with deep knowledge of doctrine, patristics, and especially the history of theological systems. His literary output (his school texts never attained the definitive finish he sought for publication) consists almost exclusively of numerous articles published in Études, the Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique of Toulouse, and the Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique. For this dictionary, in addition to the entries: Abélard; Adoptionisme aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles; Alexandre III, he contributed: Augustin (I, cols. 2268-2472), Augustiniano (I, cols. 2485-2501), Augustiniano (I, cols. 2501-2561), in all 280 columns, which still constitute an indispensable synthesis despite the sometimes excessive speed with which certain points are treated. To the other two periodicals he contributed valuable and dense studies on the crisis of Protestantism in France and trenchant, lucid articles against Modernism, Modernists (Loisy, Tyrrell, Turmel) and excessive integralists, while defending the value of dogma against every, even insidious, assault (e.g., Dogmes et histoire, in Bull. de littér. ecclés., 3rd ser., 6 [1904], pp. 62-143); Explication morale des dogmes (Études, 104 [1905], pp. 144-73, 318-42); L'évolutionisme condamné par le St-Siège (ibid., 112 [1907], pp. 393-412); La Question Herzog-Dupin (ibid., 116-17 [1908]; separately: La critique de M. Turmel et la Question Herzog-Dupin, Paris 1908); Also noteworthy: A propos du dernier roman de «Diana Vaughan» (Études, 70 [1897], pp. 162-74) and L'hypnotisme au moyen-âge, Avicenne et Richard de Middle-town (ibid., 55 [1892], pp. 481-99, 577-97).
Celestino Testore
HOLY DOOR. - A walled-up door found in Rome, in the patriarchal basilicas of St. Peter in the Vatican, St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major on the Esquiline, beside the main entrance, which is opened on the occasion of the celebration of universal Jubilee Years.
The Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica is opened by the Supreme Pontiff on Christmas Eve immediately preceding the Holy Year (v. JUBILEE), with special and characteristic ceremonies during which the Supreme Pontiff, with a golden hammer, strikes three blows on the center of the door, intoning the verses: Aperite mihi portas iustitiae. Introibo in domum tuam, Domine. Aperite mihi portas, quoniam vobiscum Deus. At the same time, three cardinals legates a latere proceed to open the other Holy Doors. On the following Christmas Eve, the four Holy Doors are closed with an inverse ceremony.
These doors are called holy not only because their opening and closing mark the beginning and end of the Jubilee Year, commonly called the Holy Year, but chiefly because, as Ricci observes, “the Supreme Pontiff and the cardinals his legates a latere bless the stones, mortar, and cement with which they are sealed, invoking the Name of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (O. Ricci, De’ Giubilei universali celebrati negli Anni Santi, Rome 1675, p. 17). The opening of the Holy Door during the celebration of Holy Years undoubtedly refers to numerous events said, according to ancient law, to have taken place before the doors of the temple, and to the fact that, as St. Cyprian affirms, the doors of churches were closed to sinners (Ep., 31). There is certain evidence of the opening of the Holy Door and the related rite on Christmas Eve 1449 (Jubilee Year 1450), during the pontificate of Nicholas V (cf. Pastor, I, p. 429).
To gain the Jubilee indulgence it is not necessary to enter or exit through the Holy Door (S. Penitenz. Apost., Monita of 17 Sept. 1949, in AAS, 41 [1949], p. 516, XII, 4°).