The celebration of the Jubilee always represents an event of great spiritual, ecclesial and social relevance in the life of the Church, the Pontiff remarks.
Vatican City (12/02/2022 4:03 PM, Gaudium Press) Pope Francis announced the next Jubilee, which will take place in the year 2025, in a letter addressed to the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, Msgr. Rino Fisichella. The pope underscored its importance to the Catholic Church.
Francis noted that the celebration of the Jubilee has always represented an event of great spiritual, ecclesial and social relevance in the life of the Church. Since the first Holy Year, celebrated in 1300, Catholics have experienced this moment as a special gift of grace, characterized by the forgiveness of sins and indulgence, a full expression of God’s mercy.
Jubilee of the year 2000
According to Francis, the Great Jubilee of the year 2000 introducing the Church to the third millennium of her history was intended by St. John Paul II “in the hope that all Christians, putting behind their historical divisions, could celebrate together the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of humanity.”
Addressing the upcoming Holy Year, Pope Francis urged the Christian people to live it in all its pastoral significance. In this sense, “a significant step on this journey was already taken with the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which allowed us to appreciate anew all the power and tenderness of the Father’s merciful love, in order to become, in our turn, its witnesses,” he stressed.
An atmosphere of hope and trust
The Pontiff wishes that the upcoming Jubilee may favour the recomposition of a climate of hope and confidence, a sign of a renewed rebirth we all feel great urgency for.
“In the realization that all of us are pilgrims on this earth, which the Lord has charged us to till and keep (cf. Gen 2:15), may we never fail, in the course of our sojourn, to contemplate the beauty of creation and care for our common home. It is my hope that the coming Jubilee Year will be celebrated and experienced with this intention too,” he stressed.
Great symphony of prayer
Promising the promulgation of the Bull of Promulgation in due time, the Holy Father indicates that it will contain the necessary indications to celebrate the Jubilee of 2025. The Pontiff anticipates that during this time of preparation, “we devote 2024, the year preceding the Jubilee event, to a great ‘symphony’ of prayer.”
Concluding his letter, Pope Francis sent his Blessing to Archbishop Fisichella and his assistants and begged Our Lady to accompany the Church on this journey of preparation for the event of grace that is the Jubilee. (EPC)
Compiled by Gustavo Kralj