On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis will open the holy door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and mark the official start of Jubilee 2025: Pilgrims of Hope. Five days later, on Dec. 29, Cardinal Cupich will celebrate a Mass at Holy Name Cathedral kicking off the jubilee celebration locally. In January 2021, as the world struggled to return to some kind of normalcy after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis announced that he had chosen “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme for the Holy Year. “We must fan the flame of hope that has been given to us and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and farsighted vision,” the pope wrote in a letter entrusting the organization of the jubilee to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the then-Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization. The pope prayed that the Holy Year would be marked by “deep faith, lively hope and active charity.” A holy year or jubilee is a time of pilgrimage, prayer, repentance and acts of mercy, based on the Old Testament tradition of a jubilee year of rest, forgiveness and renewal. Holy years also are a time when Catholics make pilgrimages to designated churches and shrines, recite special prayers, go to confession and receive Communion to receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one’s sins. Unlike in previous jubilee years, the only holy doors that will be open will be in Rome: St. Peter’s Basilica, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls. However, for people who cannot travel to Italy on pilgrimage, the archdiocese has established 24 pilgrimage sites at local parishes in each vicariate. By fulfilling the usual requirements, the faithful can obtain a plenary indulgence by visiting the sites. To prepare and engage in the holy year, Todd Williamson, director of the archdiocese’s Office for Divine Worship, recommends reading “Spes Non Confundit,” the bull of indication for the jubilee year. “Pope Francis does set out what his intent is,” Williamson said. “And in the midst of everything that is going on in the world right now, to reinvest in the Christian virtue of hope through their own prayer, through participating in the pilgrimage sites, by following the Holy Father during the year for his writings and his homilies, he will touch on that.” In addition to individual acts of charity, love and kindness such as feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger or visiting the sick and the imprisoned, Pope Francis has continued his predecessors’ practice of observing the jubilee by calling on governments to reduce the foreign debt of the poorest countries, grant amnesty to certain prisoners and strengthen programs to help migrants and refugees settle in their new homes. To view the multilingual jubilee website for the Vatican, visit iubilaeum2025.va. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also has a special section on its website with information about traveling to Rome for the Holy Year and for celebrating the special jubilees in one’s own diocese or parish. Visit usccb.org/committees/jubilee-2025. For local updates, visit pvm.archchicago.org/jubilee-2025.
Holy Year 2025 should ‘fan flame of hope’ after pandemic, pope says The Holy Year 2025 should focus on “restoring a climate of hope and trust” after the coronavirus pandemic and helping people repair their relationships with God, with each other and with the Earth, Pope Francis said.
Shrine to launch jubilee year for Mother Cabrini This year marks the 75th anniversary of the canonization of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, and to celebrate the occasion, the national shrine to her, located in Lincoln Park, is launching a jubilee year on Nov. 13. The year includes a plenary indulgence for those who make a pilgrimage to the shrine, walk through its holy door and complete the necessary requirements.
Thanks to our jubilarians Every year we honor the men celebrating jubilees who have dedicated themselves to serving the Lord through the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Chicago. They often wear many hats, such as administrator, maintenance man, cook, accountant, friend. They have served mostly as parish priests, with some also serving as teachers, chaplains and counselors. The Chicago Catholic congratulates and thanks them.