Pope Alexander VI the "portico" of St. Peter's and commissioned a marble door. This door lasted until 1618, when another door was installed in the new basilica. In a ceremony similar to today's, Alexander was carried in the "sedia gestatoria" to St. Peter's. He and his assistants, bearing candles, processed to the holy door, as the choir chanted . The Pope knocked on the door three times, workers moved it from the inside, and everyone then crossed the threshold to enter into a period of penance and reconciliation. Thus, Pope Alexander formalized the rite and began a longstanding tradition that is still in
Religion in the United States of Jewish Americans say they have "no religion" and the majority of respondents do not see religion as the primary constituent of Jewish identity. 62% believe Jewish identity is based primarily in ancestry and culture, only 15% in religion. Among Jews who gave Judaism as their religion, 55% based Jewish identity on ancestry and culture, and 66% did not view belief in God as essential to Judaism. A 2009 study estimated the Jewish population (including both those who define themselves as Jewish by religion and those who define themselves as Jewish in cultural or ethnic terms) to be between 6.0