Christmas Eve will see the start of the Catholic Jubilee Year 2025 with the theme "Pilgrims of Hope", chosen by Pope Francis to promote peacebuilding in a world threatened by climate change and ongoing wars that, considered together, appear to be putting humanity on the brink of the third world war.
Pope Francis sees hope as a gift offered to us by God and a task for every Christian. At its core, therefore, the Jubilee 2025 offers the global Church a chance to renew its commitment to being a restoring force in our era's fractured globe. It is a dedicated time and space where pilgrims can contemplate how to best care for life on Earth and strive for reconciliation and peace through justice. Furthermore, in an age that centres productivity and individualism, the Jubilee also gestures towards a more communal and sustainable way of living.
Jubilee origins
In the ancient Hebrew tradition, the Jubilee Year, which was celebrated every 50 years, was meant to restore equality among all of the children of Israel, offering new possibilities to families which had lost their property and even their personal freedom. In addition, the Jubilee Year was a reminder to the rich that a time would come when their Israelite slaves would once again become their equals and would be able to reclaim their rights. "Justice, according to the Law of Israel, consisted above all in the protection of the weak" (St John Paul II, "Tertio millenio adveniente," 13).
The Catholic tradition of the Holy Year began with Pope Boniface VIII in 1300. Throughout Christendom (the known world at that time) there was great suffering, caused by wars and diseases such as the plague and all kinds of ills: among the people there was a great desire to return to a more holy way of living. So with great faith the Christians determined to travel (on foot) to Rome, to pray at the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and to receive the Pope's blessing, in order to obtain the grace and strength to carry on.
Boniface VIII had envisioned a Jubilee every century. However, from 1475 onwards, in order to allow each generation to experience at least one Holy Year, the ordinary Jubilee was to be celebrated every 25 years.
The last ordinary Jubilee was the Jubilee 2000, at the beginning of the Third Millennium.
On 6th January, 2001, closing the Jubilee in Rome, St Pope John Paul II said that t"
Deeper spiritual significance
For the Catholic Church, which has given to the Hebrew Jubilee a deeper spiritual significance, the Jubilee is profoundly a Holy Year. Not only because it begins, is marked, and ends with solemn holy acts, but also because its purpose is to encourage holiness of life. It is actually meant to strengthen faith, encourage works of charity and brotherly communion within the Church and in society and to call Christians to be more sincere and coherent in their faith in Christ.
During the Holy Year, the faithful have the chance to visit holy sites, perform pious works, and have their sins remitted. Indeed, the Pope grants plenary indulgence to Jubilee pilgrims. This general pardon is open to all and so offers the possibility to renew one's relationship with God and neighbour. It is additionally an opportunity to deepen one's faith and to live with a renewed commitment to Christian witness.
Ultimately, the Jubilee reminds Christians that they worship and follow a God who brings freedom. What the Christian sees in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is the Jubilee's objective of release from sin, restoration with God and resetting for all of creation taking on human form.
Extraordinary Jubilees
The Catholic Church also celebrates extraordinary Jubilees on the occasion of an event of particular importance.
The last such Jubilee was the "Jubilee of Mercy", called by Pope Francis, on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. The Pope envisaged a Jubilee of great significance to impel the Church to continue the work begun at Vatican II. He also stated: "This is the time of mercy. It is important that the lay faithful live it and bring it into different social environments. Go forth!"
The Jubilee of Mercy started on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 2015, and was concludes on November 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
Official opening
The Jubilee 2025 will be officially opened by the Holy Father with the rite of the Opening of the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of St Peter on December 24. This Holy Door is only opened during the Holy Year and remains closed during all other years.
The rite of the opening of the Holy Door illustrates symbolically the idea that, during the Jubilee, the faithful are offered an "extraordinary pathway" towards salvation.
Each of the four major basilicas of Rome has a Holy Door: Saint Peter's, St John Lateran, St Paul Outside the Walls and St Mary Major. The Holy Doors of the Basilicas of St John, St. Paul and St. Mary will be opened after the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica.
The Jubilee 2025 has its own official logo, designed by Giacomo Travisani, who said that, designing it, he had imagined all people moving forward together, able to push ahead "thanks to the wind of Hope that is the Cross of Christ and Christ himself."