What is the Jubilee?
What is a Jubilee Year?
“Jubilee” is the name given to a particular year; the name comes from the instrument used to mark its launch. In this case, the instrument in question is the yobel, the ram’s horn, used to proclaim the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This (Jewish) holiday occurs every year, but it takes on special significance when it marks the beginning of a Jubilee year. We can find an early indication of it in the Bible: a Jubilee year was to be marked every 50 years, since this would be an “extra” year, one which would happen every seven weeks of seven years, i.e., every 49 years (cf. Leviticus 25:8-13).
Even though it wasn’t easy to organise, it was intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.
Quoting the prophet Isaiah, the Gospel of Luke describes Jesus’ mission in this way: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord,” (Luke 4:18-19; cf. Isaiah 61:1-2). Jesus lives out these words in his daily life, in his encounters with others and in his relationships, all of which bring about liberation and conversion.
In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII called the first Jubilee, also known as a
“Holy Year,” since it is a time in which God’s holiness transforms us. The frequency of Holy Years has 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 made it every 25 years.
There have also been “extraordinary” Holy Years: for example, in 1933 Pope Pius XI chose to commemorate the 1900th anniversary of the Redemption, and in 2015 Pope Francis proclaimed the Year of Mercy as an extraordinary jubilee.
The way in which Jubilee Years are marked has also changed through the centuries: originally the Holy Year consisted of a pilgrimage to the Roman Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, later other signs were added, such as the Holy Door. By participating in the Holy Year, one is granted a plenary indulgence.
What is a Jubilee Year in the Catholic Tradition?
Holy Year 2025
Hope is a recurring theme in the pontificate of Pope Francis. In his letter for the promotion of the Jubilee Year the Holy Father stated:
“We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us, and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision. The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope. This will indeed be the case if we are capable of recovering a sense of universal fraternity and refuse to turn a blind eye to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of our human dignity. Here I think in particular of the many refugees forced to abandon their native lands. May the voices of the poor be heard throughout this time of preparation for the Jubilee, which is meant to restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone.”
Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your Son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed,
be glory and praise for ever.
Amen
The logo shows four stylized figures, representing all of humanity, coming from the four corners of the earth. They embrace each other to indicate the solidarity and fraternity which should unite all peoples. The figure at the front is holding onto the cross. It is not only the sign of the faith which this lead figure embraces, but also of hope, which can never be abandoned, because we are always in need of hope, especially in our moments of greatest need.
There are the rough waves under the figures, symbolising the fact that life’s pilgrimage does not always go smoothly in calm waters. Often the circumstances of daily life and events in the wider world require a greater call to hope. That’s why we should pay special attention to the lower part of the cross which has been elongated and turned into the shape of an anchor which is let down into the waves. The anchor is well known as a symbol of hope. In maritime jargon the ‘anchor of hope’ refers to the reserve anchor used by vessels involved in emergency manoeuvres to stabilise the ship during storms. It is worth noting that the image illustrates the pilgrim’s journey not as an individual undertaking, but rather as something communal, marked by an increasing dynamism leading one ever closer to the cross.
The cross in the logo is by no means static, but it is also dynamic. It bends down towards humanity, not leaving human beings alone, but stretching out to them to offer the certainty of its presence and the security of hope. At the bottom of the logo is the motto of the 2025 Jubilee Year: Peregrinantes in Spem (Pilgrims in hope), represented in green letters.
Original text: Pierangelo Sequeri
English translation: Andrew Wadsworth
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
Ev’ry nation, tongue, and people
find a light within your Word.
Scattered fragile sons and daughters
find a home in your dear Son.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
God, so tender and so patient,
dawn of hope, you care for all.
Heav’n and earth are recreated
by the Spirit of Life set free.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
Raise your eyes, the wind is blowing,
for our God is born in time.
Son made man for you and many
who will find the way in him.
Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
Oftentimes, while walking along, a song will come to mind which really seems to express how we are feeling. This is also true for the life of faith, which is a pilgrimage toward the light of the Risen Lord. The Sacred Scriptures are steeped in song, and the Psalms are a striking example: the prayers of the people of Israel were written to be sung, and it was in song that the most human events were presented before the Lord. The tradition of the Church has continued this, making music and song one of the lungs of its liturgy.
The Jubilee, which in itself is expressed as an event of people on pilgrimage to the Holy Door, also uses song as one of the ways of expressing its motto, “Pilgrims of Hope”.
Many themes of the Holy Year are woven into the text written by Pierangelo Sequeri and set to music by Francesco Meneghello.
First of all, the motto, “Pilgrims of Hope”, is best echoed biblically in some pages from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 60). The themes of creation, fraternity, God’s tenderness and hope in our destination resonate in a language, which although not “technically” theological, is in substance and in the allusions, so that it rings eloquently in the ears of our time.
With each step of their daily pilgrimage believers trustingly rely on the source of Life. The song that arises spontaneously during the journey (cf. Augustine, Discourses, 256) is directed to God. It is a song charged with the hope of being freed and supported. It is a song imbued with the hope that it will reach the ears of the One from whom all things flow. It is God who as an ever-living flame keeps hope burning and energizes the steps of the people as they journey.
The prophet Isaiah repeatedly sees the family of men and women, sons and daughters, returning from their scattered ways, gathered in the light of God’s Word: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:2). The light is that of the Son who became Man, Jesus, who by His own Word gathers every people and nation. It is the living flame of Jesus that stirs the step: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Is 60:1).
Christian hope is dynamic and enlightens the pilgrimage of life, revealing the faces of brothers and sisters, companions on the journey. It is not a roaming of lone wolves, but a journey of people, confident and joyful, moving toward a new destination. The breath of the Spirit of life does not fail to brighten the dawn of the future that is about to arise. The heavenly Father patiently and tenderly watches over the pilgrimage of his children and opens wide the Way for them, pointing to Jesus, his Son, who becomes a pathway for everyone.
Jubilee Churches in the Archdiocese of Sydney
A pilgrimage is a devotional journey that one undertakes to a holy or sacred site and which is often associated with a saint or religious artifice of local or international significance.
For Catholics, a pilgrimage is more than just traveling to a historic site or viewing religious artworks or relics. At its core, it is a journey that carries within it a deep spiritual meaning and an opportunity for personal growth and conversion of heart.
The word pilgrim comes from the Latin word peregrinum which conveys the idea of wandering over a distance. A pilgrimage is not purposeless wandering. It is a focused and intentional journey with a higher purpose and that purpose is, specifically, to honour God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, summarises the understanding of pilgrimage in this way: “Pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer. For pilgrims seeking living water, shrines are special places for living the forms of Christian prayer” (2691).
Dates: 29 December 2024 – 28 December 2025
List of all designated churches with their addresses
- St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
- St Patrick’s, Church Hill
- The Shrine of St Mary of the Cross, North Sydney
- The Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Waterloo
- St Brigid’s, Coogee
- Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, Randwick
- The Shrine of St Anne, Bondi
- All Saints, Liverpool
- Holy Spirit, Carnes Hill
- St Joachim’s, Lidcombe
- St Brigid’s, Marrickville
- St Cathrine Laboure, Gymea
Plenary indulgences in the Jubilee Year
An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven in the Sacrament of Confession. All our actions, including sins, have consequences. While the forgiveness of the guilt of mortal sins is offered to us in the Sacrament of Confession, the consequences (‘temporal punishment”) of those sins remain. An indulgence removes the temporal punishment due to sin.
Pope Francis teaches in Spes Non Confundit, his Bull on the Jubilee Year:
“As we know from personal experience, every sin ‘leaves its mark’. Sin has consequences, not only outwardly in the effects of the wrong we do, but also inwardly, inasmuch as ‘every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death, in the state called Purgatory’. In our humanity, weak and attracted by evil, certain residual effects of sin remain. These are removed by the indulgence, always by the grace of Christ, who, as Saint Paul VI wrote, ‘is himself our ‘indulgence’”.
Therefore, according to Pope Francis “the indulgence is a way of discovering the unlimited nature of God’s mercy. Not by chance, for the ancients, the terms “mercy” and “indulgence” were interchangeable, as expressions of the fullness of God’s forgiveness, which knows no bounds.” (Par. 23)
A partial indulgence removes the punishment partially, a plenary indulgence removes the punishment completely.
The Church dispenses and applies the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints to the faithful Catholics under certain conditions. The faithful need to be properly disposed in the spiritual way and they need to perform certain actions that manifest their Christian way of life (usually recite certain prayers and/or perform acts of mercy and charity).
- One must be a baptised Catholic, in a “state of grace” and detached from sin of any kind, including venial sin (if the detachment is not complete, the indulgence will be proportionally partial rather than plenary)
- One must have the general intention to receive the indulgence
- One must receive Holy Communion on the day of the indulgence and the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the close proximity to it. If one wishes to receive indulgence every day in a consecutive sequence of days, it is not necessary to go to Confession every day. However, it is necessary to receive Holy Communion on the day of the indulgence.
- One must pray for the intentions of the Pope (usually an Our Father and a Hail Mary).
- One must recite either the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed.
A plenary indulgence in the Jubilee Year is available to those who:
– visit any designated Jubilee church
– remain there for a suitable period of time
– engage in Eucharistic adoration and meditation, then
– conclude their time of prayer with the Our Father, the Profession of Faith and the Hail Mary (or any other invocation to Mary the Mother of God)
By fulfilling these conditions while at a Jubilee church, the grace of the Jubilee indulgence is granted.
Ordinarily, only one plenary indulgence can be received per day. However, for the duration of the Jubilee Year, it is possible to obtain a second indulgence which can be offered for a deceased person if the member of the faithful:
– carries out an act of charity offered for the souls in purgatory, and
– receives Holy Communion a second time that day (this needs to happen during Mass).
A document from the Apostolic Penitentiary on the indulgences in the Jubilee Year 2025 issued on 13 May 2024 states that:
“The faithful who are truly repentant of sin but who cannot participate in the various solemn celebrations, pilgrimages and pious visits for serious reasons (especially cloistered nuns and monks, but also the elderly, the sick, prisoners, and those who, through their work in hospitals or other care facilities, provide continuous service to the sick), can obtain the Jubilee Indulgence, under the same conditions if, united in spirit with the faithful taking part in person, (especially when the words of the Supreme Pontiff or the diocesan Bishop are transmitted through the various means of communication), they recite the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any approved form, and other prayers in conformity with the objectives of the Holy Year, in their homes or wherever they are confined (e.g. in the chapel of the monastery, hospital, nursing home, prison…) offering up their sufferings or the hardships of their lives.”
Apart from the standard conditions for receiving an indulgence, in the Jubilee Year 2025 it is also possible to receive it through other means, in addition to the standard means. These additional means include:
- Receiving the Papal Blessing from diocesan bishop or eparch when he imparts this in the Cathedral or jubilee churches
- Abstaining in a spirit of penance from futile distractions (e.g. social media), especially on Fridays
- Fasting or practicing abstinence according to the general norms of the Church on Fridays
- Performing Works of Mercy, both corporal (feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead) and spiritual (counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offences, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead)
- Participating in popular missions, spiritual exercises or formation activities with a devout spirit
- Visiting the sick, prisoners, lonely elderly persons, disabled persons
- Contributing financially to works that support defence and protection of life in all its phases
- Contributing financially to works that support quality of life of abandoned children, young people in difficulty, needy or lonely elderly people, or migrants
- Volunteering a reasonable portion of one’s free time to community service.
As the document of the Apostolic Penitentiary states: “In a special way ‘during the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind’ (Spes non confundit, 10). Therefore, the Indulgence is also linked to certain works of mercy and penance, which bear witness to the conversion undertaken. The faithful, following the example and mandate of Christ, are encouraged to carry out works of charity or mercy more frequently, especially in the service of those brothers and sisters who are burdened by various needs. More especially, they should rediscover these ‘corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead’ (Misericordiae vultus, 15) and rediscover also ‘the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offences, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead’ (ibid.).
In this way, the faithful will be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if they visit, for an appropriate amount of time, their brothers and sisters who are in need or in difficulty (the sick, prisoners, lonely elderly people, disabled people…), in a sense making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them (cf. Mt 25, 34- 36) according to the usual spiritual, sacramental and prayer conditions. The faithful can repeat these visits throughout the Holy Year, even daily, acquiring a plenary indulgence each time.”