Jubilee 2025: Pilgrims of Hope

What is a Jubilee Year?
A jubilee year is a time of joy, repentance, and forgiveness. As the etymology of the word denotes, every jubilee year calls for rejoicing, especially in the goodness of God. Just as a person might celebrate a milestone birthday with particular solemnity, so does the Church rejoice at appropriate moments in time. In the Catholic Church, ordinary jubilee years occur every quarter century. The Holy Father can also inaugurate an extraordinary jubilee year, which Pope Francis did in 2016 under the title the “Jubilee Year of Mercy.” 

In the papal bull, Spes Non Confudit, Pope Francis inaugurated the Jubilee Year of 2025, which he named the Jubilee of Hope. 

During a jubilee year, Christians cooperate with the bounty of divine grace as they strive to enter through the door of salvation, which is Jesus Christ. During this time, the Church invites the faithful to benefit from her “treasury of grace,” won by the merits of Christ. This principally occurs through conversion in the Sacrament of Penance and the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin through plenary indulgences, applied either for oneself or for others (such as deceased relatives or friends).


What is the history of the Jubilee Year?
In the Old Testament, the Jewish people celebrated a jubilee year every 50 years, as recounted in the Book of Leviticus (Lv 25:8-13). God intended the jubilee as a time to re-establish his chosen people’s right relationship with Himself. The jubilee included the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, liberty for captives, and a fallow period for agriculture.

In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII inaugurated the first jubilee year, or holy year, for the universal Church. The frequency of holy years changed over time: at first, they were celebrated every 100 years; later, in 1343 Pope Clement VI reduced the gap between jubilees to every 50 years, and in 1470 Pope Paul II established that jubilees would be celebrated every 25 years. 


What is a holy door?
In the Catholic tradition, the holy door represents the path to a new and eternal life, which was opened to humanity by Jesus, who is himself the door to salvation. In 2025, Pope Francis will open five holy doors beginning with the holy door at the Basilica of St. Peter at the Vatican and concluding with the other papal basilicas in Rome and an Italian prison. Cathedrals will not have special holy doors as they did in 2016 during the Jubilee of Mercy. Nevertheless, diocesan cathedrals and other “jubilee sites” will serve as places of pilgrimage and pious visits for the faithful, who can gain the same plenary indulgences under the normal conditions (see below). 

 
What is an indulgence?
An indulgence is the remission of temporal punishment due to sin, which is won by the merits of Christ and dispensed through the treasury of grace, which is the Church. An indulgence is applied partially or fully for oneself or for another. 

When a person celebrates the Sacrament of Penance, that person obtains forgiveness for his sins. This includes having contrition for one’s sins, confessing those sins to a priest, receiving absolution, and promising to make satisfaction (through an assigned Penance). Although one’s sin may be absolved and a person is free of eternal punishment, some effects of sin still remain. Those effects require additional satisfaction. Consider a helpful analog: in the natural order, if I steal my neighbor’s bike, he might forgive me, which makes us friends again. But in order for our relationship to be fully restored, I need to return the bike to my friend. In the same way, we must return to God what belongs to him—right praise and worship, which we have sullied by our sins. 

The Church therefore teaches that all who die in God's grace and friendship, but are still imperfectly purified -- while assured of their eternal salvation -- must undergo purification after death in order to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church calls this temporal punishment Purgatory. A partial indulgence remits some of the temporal punishment due to sin, whereas a plenary indulgence remits all of the temporal punishment due to sin. 

An indulgence is a favor befitting the magnanimity and goodness of God who never ceases to pardon. We are not “owed” indulgences; they are gifts from the treasury of the Church for the benefit of the faithful.

 
How can I obtain a plenary indulgence?
Although several pious actions (such as praying before the Blessed Sacrament for thirty minutes or reciting the Holy Rosary in a church) render one disposed to receive a plenary indulgence during any time, there are several more opportunities to benefit from a plenary indulgence during the Jubilee Year of 2025.

In order to obtain a plenary indulgence, one must perform some “indulgenced action,” such as a pious visit, pilgrimage, or work of mercy as determined by the Church (these actions are listed below), and also fulfill the following conditions: 

1. Receive Holy Communion
2. Receive the Sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion (usually within 8 days), or after receiving Holy Communion (if one does not labor under mortal sin -- again, usually within 8 days)
3. Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father (typically, by saying an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be; though any simple prayer suffices)
4. Be properly disposed through detachment from all sin, both mortal and venial

1. Participate in any Holy Mass, such as a Jubilee Mass, Votive Mass for Reconciliation, or a Mass for the conferral of the sacraments of Christian Initiation or the Anointing of the Sick
2. Participate in a celebration of the Word of God; the Liturgy of the Hours (office of readings, lauds, vespers); the Via Crucis; the Holy Rosary; the recitation of the Akathist hymn; a penitential celebration, which ends with the individual confessions of the penitents.

• Engage in Eucharistic adoration and meditation
• Conclude adoration with an Our Father, the Profession of Faith, and invocations to Mary, the Mother of God