The 2025 Jubilee Year, “Pilgrims of Hope,” designated as the theme by Pope Francis, is set to begin on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, and continue throughout 2025 before concluding on Jan. 6, 2026, the feast of the Epiphany.
Ordinary Jubilees typically take place in the Church every 25 years.
The Jubilee celebrates the incarnation of Christ, when God became man, which the Church recognizes as having occurred in the year 1. The year 2025 marks the 2,025th anniversary of the incarnation of the Lord.
The last Ordinary Jubilee took place in 2000. More recently, Pope Francis inaugurated a Jubilee Year in 2015, the “Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy,” which concluded in 2016.
Father Paul Keller, OP (Order of Preachers), diocesan director for the Office of Divine Worship, considered “Pilgrims of Hope” an appropriate theme for the upcoming Jubilee.
“Hope is more needed than ever in the age in which we live,” he said. “It’s a theological virtue. It’s the second of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love; but hope, I think, is misunderstood, and so many people are suffering from a lack of hope.
“Hope is the confident expectation of salvation in Christ. So, in other words, when we live in hope, we live our lives in such a way to glorify God, to try to be free of sin, with the knowledge that God desires more than we do to have us live with Him eternally in heaven. I think we’ve forgotten that.”
To mark the opening of the Jubilee Year on Christmas Eve, Pope Francis will open the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome that day. The door will remain open during the entire Jubilee Year and close on Jan. 6, 2026.
“The doors symbolize entering more deeply into the life of Christ and the Church, and those doors are only opened during the Holy Year,” Father Keller said. “Outside of Jubilee years, the doors are never opened.”
The Pope will also open holy doors at three major basilicas in Rome in the days after the opening of the Jubilee Year.
The Holy Father will open holy doors at St. John Lateran, the cathedral in Rome, on Dec. 29; at St. Mary Major on Jan. 1, the feast of Mary, Mother of God; and at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls on Jan. 5.
The Pope will also open a holy door at Rome’s Rebibbia prison on Dec. 26, the feast of St. Stephen.
During the 2000 Jubilee Year, Holy Year doors were opened in every diocese. Certain churches were marked as places for pilgrimage, and pilgrims could enter through the church’s Holy Doors.
“The difference this year from years past is that only in Rome are there special Holy Doors,” Father Keller said. “Throughout the rest of the world, there are no special holy doors for this year.”
Bishop Earl Fernandes will inaugurate the Jubilee Year in the Diocese of Columbus on Sunday, Dec. 29.
The bishop will celebrate Mass at 10:30 a.m. at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral after a procession from Columbus Holy Cross Church, where the bishop will offer Mass at 9 a.m. He will lead clergy and laity through the streets of downtown Columbus to the cathedral to open the Jubilee Year in the diocese.
“The Holy Father has asked that there be processions associated with the opening of the Holy Year Door,” Father Keller said. “The idea of a procession is symbolic of us making our way to heaven.”
During the Jubilee Year, the faithful are encouraged to make a pilgrimage.
Bishop Fernandes will lead a pilgrimage to Rome from Oct. 11 to 17, 2025. The pilgrimage will include Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, tours of several Roman basilicas, an opportunity to walk through holy doors and a blessing from Pope Francis as part of his papal audience.
A pre-tour in Assisi will be offered Oct. 9-12. Pilgrims can pray at the tomb of Blessed Carlo Acutis, an Italian millennial who is set to be canonized a saint in April 2025, and walk in the footsteps of Ss. Francis and Clare of Assisi.
A diocesan pilgrimage to Rome for educators is also set for October 2025.
Plans are underway for a pilgrimage for young adults in July. Father David Arroyo, vicar for Hispanic ministries, will lead a nine-day pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi from July 27 to Aug. 4.
The Jubilee Year and tradition of making a pilgrimage has biblical roots, drawing from the Old Testament.
“People would make special pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices,” Father Keller said. “Even in our own time, people will make pilgrimages to Rome and other holy sites to thank God and to pray for special blessings. And for those who cannot, it is possible to make a pilgrimage to the cathedral.”
In addition to St. Joseph Cathedral, Lancaster Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption will serve as a designated pilgrimage site in the diocese during the Jubilee Year.
The faithful can receive a plenary indulgence, or remission of the temporal punishment due for sins that have already been forgiven, by making a pilgrimage to a sacred Jubilee site during the Jubilee Year.
The Holy Father granted that the faithful who are repentant, free from affection for sin and moved by a spirit of charity can participate by visiting a designated holy site. To receive the indulgence, an individual must also receive sacramental confession, Holy Communion, pray for the Pope’s intentions and engage in works of mercy and charity.
“It’s important for people to make the pilgrimage to both the cathedral and/or St. Mary’s basilica in Lancaster in order to show that they want to grow in hope … to break out of the routine of life in order to deepen their relationship with God and deepen their desire for heaven, which is what hope leads us to,” Father Keller said.
In a decree on the granting of the indulgence for the Jubilee Year, the Pope also said the faithful can receive a plenary indulgence twice in a day by performing an act of charity for the souls in purgatory and receiving Holy Communion a second time that day and applying it to the deceased. The Holy Father recognized the act as a “praiseworthy exercise of supernatural charity.”
Certain works of mercy and penance are also grounds for a plenary indulgence during the Jubilee Year.
Faithful who cannot participate, such as the elderly, sick or prisoners, can obtain the Jubilee indulgence under the same conditions by uniting themselves in spirit with the faithful who take part in person. Such individuals must also recite the Our Father, Profession of Faith and other prayers, offering up their sufferings or hardships of their lives.
Father Keller noted forgiveness as another important aspect of the upcoming Jubilee Year.
“In the Old Testament, debts were forgiven,” he said. “That is especially important for us as Christians, to forgive all the people to whom we owe forgiveness.
“This Holy Year is a time for spiritual renewal and forgiveness – and forgiveness for our own sins, but also to forgive others who have wronged us.”
For more information on the 2025 Jubilee Year, visit the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website, www.USCCB.org/committees/jubilee-2025.