The Jubilee Year began on Christmas Eve 2024 and was marked by the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican immediately before Pope Francis celebrated midnight Mass. The Holy Door represents the passage to salvation opened by Jesus to humanity. When announcing the Jubilee Year Pope Francis, in the opening paragraph of Spes non Confundit says, “For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ … of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as “our hope” (1 Tim1:1).
The origin of the Christian Jubilee goes back to Old Testament times in which Law of Moses prescribed a special year for the Jewish people: “You shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim the liberty throughout the land, to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family. This fiftieth year is to be a jubilee year for you.” (Leviticus 25, 10-14) The trumpet with which this particular year was announced was a goat’s horn called Yobel in Hebrew, and is the origin of the word jubilee. The celebration of this year also included the restitution of land to the original owners, the remission of debts, the liberation of slaves and the land was left fallow. In the New Testament, Jesus presents himself as the One who brings the old Jubilee to completion, because he has come to “preach the year of the Lord’s favour” (Isaiah 61: 1-2).
The theme for the 2025 Jubilee is “Pilgrims of Hope.” In the document announcing this year, i.e. “Spes Non Confundit” or “Hope does not disappoint,” Pope Francis states, “Everyone knows what it is to hope”…“In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring….“ For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope. God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope.” Pope Francis also hopes the year draws Catholics toward patience, which he described as a “virtue closely linked to hope,” yet can feel elusive in “our fast-paced world, we are used to wanting everything now.” (Par 4)
In the Roman Catholic tradition, a Holy Year, or Jubilee is a great religious event. It is a year of forgiveness of sins and also the punishment due to sin, it is a year of reconciliation between adversaries, of conversion and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and consequently of solidarity, hope, justice, commitment to serve God with joy and in peace with our brothers and sisters. A Jubilee year is above all the year of Christ, who brings life and grace to humanity.
This Jubilee Year is also a call for Christian action. Pope Francis calls on us to be tangible signs of hope showing our concern for peace in the world, openness to life and responsible parenthood, and closeness to prisoners, the poor, the sick, the young, the elderly, migrants and people “in difficult situations.” Pope Francis has called on affluent counties to forgive the debts of countries that would never be able to repay them, and address “ecological debt,” which he described as “connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time.” (Par 16)
It is also a year of Pilgrimage with a projected thirty-five million visitors expected in Rome for a series of events planned to mark the year. The 2025 Jubilee Year also looks forward to 2033 when the church will mark the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, which Pope Francis called “another fundamental celebration for all Christians.”
The Jubilee Year concludes with the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 6, 2026, on the feast of the Epiphany.
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