A new Jubilee Year has been announced by Pope Francis to be celebrated in 2025, kicking off on 24 December 2024 and concluding on January 6, 2026.
The Holy Father proclaimed the Jubilee Year 2025 with the publication of the bull titled Spes Non Confundit, or “Hope Does Not Disappoint” (from a verse in St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans 5:5), in a ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The theme chosen for the Jubilee Year is “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Promulgating the document, Pope Francis said: “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.” Reflecting on Christian hope, the Pope said it sustains us in our journey, even during the darkest and most difficult moments and times.
In the Bible, a Jubilee was a year of rest that was given to the land and which also served to forgive debts. In its actual form, the Jubilees were instituted by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300. It is to be celebrated every 25 years. The last one was proclaimed and presided over in 2000 by Pope John Paul II.
In the bull for the Jubilee Year, the pope calls upon Christians to be “signs of hope” for the poorest and marginalized people of society. Pope Francis proposes a full program of initiatives to do this: to care for prisoners, to care for the sick and the elderly, to be signs of hope to the youth and to migrants.
Furthermore, he appeals to governments to abolish the death penalty and divert money away from military spending toward a global fund dedicated to ending hunger and aiding the development of poor countries. He also calls upon rich nations to forgive the debts of poor countries. “More than a question of generosity, this is a matter of justice,” he says.
The Jubilee coincides with the 1,700th anniversary of the first ecumenical Council of Nicaea, and Pope Francis desires that it will inspire a move towards greater unity among Christians, particularly in celebrating Easter on a common date.
For the Jubilee Year 2025, the pope is encouraging people to seek God’s forgiveness through the sacrament of reconciliation. To this end, he will commission “Missionaries of Mercy” to reach out to people during the Jubilee. He urges bishops to do likewise in their diocese. Moreover, he added that the Jubilee Year indulgences would be available to the faithful.
Francis concluded by saying, “May the Lord, risen from the dead and ascended into heaven, grant us the grace to rediscover hope, to proclaim hope, and to build hope.”
