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Chicago (Dec. 24, 2024) – Today, Pope Francis will open the holy door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and mark the official start of Jubilee 2025: Pilgrims of Hope. Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, will begin the local celebration of the jubilee year with an opening Mass at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 29 at Holy Name Cathedral. The Mass will be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMAk4CPmXF4.

This special jubilee, from Dec. 29, 2024, through Dec. 28, 2025, is a time for renewal, reflection and spiritual growth, offering Catholics an opportunity to deepen their faith and experience God’s grace in profound ways. The pope prayed that the Holy Year would be marked by “deep faith, lively hope and active charity.”

“Jubilee 2025 is an opportunity for the faithful to experience the grace of renewal and rebirth following years of suffering from the impacts of ongoing wars, the climate crisis and the continuing  effects of the pandemic,” said Cardinal Cupich. “I am grateful to all of the pastors of our parishes and missions who will serve as pilgrimage sites throughout the Holy Year as a way for local Catholics to be united and participate fully in the jubilee.”

A holy year or jubilee is a time of pilgrimage, prayer, repentance and acts of mercy, based on the Old Testament tradition of a jubilee year of rest, forgiveness and renewal. Holy years also are a time when Catholics make pilgrimages to designated churches and shrines, recite special prayers, go to confession and receive Communion to receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one’s sins.

The Archdiocese of Chicago has identified 24 jubilee pilgrimage sites at local parishes for the faithful who cannot travel to Rome to obtain a plenary indulgence. At these sites, the faithful experience and obtain the indulgence by spending time in prayer, adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, or participating in the celebration of the Eucharist or Reconciliation or other scheduled liturgies as well as making a profession of faith and praying for the pope’s intentions. 

Unlike in previous jubilee years, the only holy doors that will be open will be in Rome at St. Peter’s Basilica, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls.

In his letter about the jubilee, Pope Francis said, “We must keep the torch of hope that has been given to us alight, and do everything we can to ensure that everyone regains the strength and certainty to look to the future with an open mind, a trusting heart and a farsighted mind. The next Jubilee will greatly help to restore a climate of hope and trust, as a sign of a renewed rebirth that we all feel is urgently needed. This is why I have chosen the motto Pilgrims of Hope. All this will be possible, however, if we are capable of recovering the sense of universal brotherhood, if we do not close our eyes to the drama of widespread poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of human beings.

I am thinking especially of the many refugees forced to abandon their lands. May the voices of the poor be heard in this time of preparation for the Jubilee which, according to the biblical command, restores to everyone access to the fruits of the earth.”

For more information about the archdiocese’s jubilee year activities and pilgrimage sites, please visit: https://pvm.archchicago.org/jubilee-2025

To view the multilingual jubilee website for the Vatican, visit iubilaeum2025.va.