Pope Francis has designated 2025 as a Jubilee Year with the theme, ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.

 

What is a Jubilee?

The Jubilee Years, also known as Holy Years, started in 1300 AD and recall the great jubilee of Israel: a time for land to be rested and debts to be cancelled, when God called people to be reconciled with one another and with Him. They now occur every 25 years, although the next will be 2033 – the anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

 

These Years, the Church explains, are years “of reconciliation between adversaries, of conversion and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation, ‘…and consequently of solidarity, hope, justice, commitment to serve God with joy and in peace with our brothers and sisters’”

The Holy Year is an opportunity to offer “signs of hope” to our world: hope for peace, hope for the transmission of life, hope for those who are in prison, hope for the sick, for the young, for migrants, for the elderly, for those who are poor. The goods of the earth “are not destined for a privileged few, but for everyone.” No one should go without what they need for a dignified life, no one should live without hope.

 

When is the Jubilee?

The Jubilee Year will run from the opening of the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, on Tuesday 24 December 2024 to the Feast of Epiphany 2026.

Archbishop Bernard Longley (Archbishop of Birmingham), is set to celebrate Mass for the Solemn Opening of the Year, at St Chad’s Cathedral on Sunday 29 December 2024.

Since the Jubilee begins when schools will be closed for their Christmas break, there will be a Jubilee launch for schools and colleges on 24th January 2025.

 

Watch this space for more information, ideas and resources on how to celebrate this joyful year of jubilee.