ABOVE: The major basilicas of Rome, clockwise from upper left: St. Peter’s, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major.
On Christmas Eve 2024, Pope Francis opened the “Holy Doors” of St. Peter’s Basilica signifying the beginning of a “Jubilee Year.”
This tradition can be traced as far back as the Book of Leviticus in the Old Testament. It was a time of release and renewal every 50 years, with debts forgiven, slaves freed and the land allowed to rest. The beginning of the Jewish Jubilee was marked by the sounding of a ram’s horn. In Hebrew, this horn is called jobel, from which the Christian term jubilee comes.
In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII declared the first Catholic Jubilee Year and that a Jubilee should be take place every 100 years. The next one, however, was declared just 50 years later. During the 1340s, the people of Rome were upset at the exile of the popes to Avignon and sent delegations there to the reigning pope, Clement VI, to plead with him to declare a Jubilee Year in 1350. They argued that Rome was in miserable condition and human life was too short to allow a person to gain the plenary indulgence gained by a pilgrimage to the tomb of Peter if it could be obtained only every 100 years. Clement VI agreed to declare 1350 a Jubilee Year.
Pope Paul II (1464-71) issued the bull “Ineffabilis Providentia” on April 19, 1470, decreeing that a jubilee be celebrated every 25 years. That tradition has happened ever since with only a few exceptions. He also established that the Jubilee pilgrimage should include visits to the four main basilicas: St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major. He died a year later, and it fell to his successor, Sixtus IV, to celebrate the Jubilee of 1475.
Those who participate in a Holy Year pilgrimage are granted a plenary indulgence; those who are unable to attend in person for concrete reasons are invited to participate spiritually, “offering up the sufferings of their daily lives and participating in the Eucharistic celebration.”
Each of these year-long celebrations has a theme. The Holy Father has declared 2025 as a “Year of Hope,” which is appropriate at a time when conflicts in the world seem to be escalating and it’s easy to despair about how things are developing. In fact, Pope Francis made history on Dec. 26 by opening another Holy Door in the chapel of Rebbibia, Rome’s largest prison, as a sign of hope for the inmates there. He is the first pope to open a Holy Door in a prison. Following tradition, the pope’s legates (probably to alleviate some of the pope’s stress over mobility problems) opened the Holy Doors in the three other major basilicas in Rome.
During this Jubilee Year, Francis implores us “to discover hope in the signs of the times that the Lord gives us” and “to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence.”
He suggests ways in which we can be agents of hope in today’s world. He encourages the world to desire peace. He promotes openness to life and responsible parenthood. He suggests the restoration of hope to prisoners through amnesties, pardons, improving prison conditions and the abolition of the death penalty.
Francis asks us to be “signs of hope” for the young, the elderly, the sick and those in hospital or affected by illnesses or disabilities, and for migrants. He asks the most affluent nations to “forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to pay them” and to address “the ecological debt,” describing this as “a matter of justice.”
Though we may not be able to visit Rome and its holy sites, we all have the possibility to be beacons of hope.