MILLIONS of visitors are expected to converge on Rome for the Roman Catholic Church’s new Jubilee Year, which will feature religious and cultural events highlighting and fostering Christian commitment.
“Once again, Rome will welcome pilgrims from across the globe, as it did in 1300 during the first Church Jubilee,” Pope Francis explained in a pre-Christmas reflection in the Italian daily Il Messaggero.
“The city is invited to become a place of hospitality, a melting pot of diversity and dialogue, a multicultural hub where the world’s colours come together like a mosaic. Rome can embody an eternal spirit, rooted in its glorious past yet committed to building a future without barriers, discrimination or mistrust.”
The text was published before the inauguration of the Jubilee, with the opening of a Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica, on Christmas Eve.
The Pope said that the Jubilee tradition, dating from ancient Jewish practices, had been given a “new and ultimate meaning” by Jesus Christ as a means of “addressing all forms of human oppression”.
The modern tradition, he said, had originated with Pope Boniface VIII as a time of grace “offering freedom to those imprisoned by sin, resignation, and despair”, and “an invitation to heal inner blindness that prevents us from encountering God and recognising others”.
Visitor numbers to Rome are expected to double to about 60 million during the year — on the theme “Pilgrims of Hope” — and will formally end at Epiphany 2026.
Pilgrims, using passes with QR codes available on the Vatican website, will be encouraged to come through Holy Doors at the city’s four papal basilicas, all opened by the Pope by Sunday, as well as a new Door at the Rebibbia Prison in Rome.
Special plenary indulgences can be obtained by visitors to other sacred sites designated by local RC bishops, such as the Holy Sepulchre Basilica, Jerusalem. Provision has been made for those unable to travel through sickness or disability.
Roman Catholics have also been asked to prepare for the Jubilee by studying the four constitutions of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council: Sacrosanctum Concilium, Lumen Gentium, Dei Verbum, and Gaudium et Spes.
In a papal bull in May 2024, Spes Non Confundit, Pope Francis said that the Jubilee would coincide with the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, as well as a rare common celebration of Easter, offering “a summons to all Churches and Ecclesial Communities to persevere on the path to visible unity” (News, 13 December 2024).
He hoped the year would bring “a moment of genuine personal encounter” with Christ, at a time when many were “discouraged, pessimistic, and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness.
“In our fast-paced world, we are used to wanting everything now. . . Patience has been put to flight by frenetic haste, and this has proved detrimental, since it leads to impatience, anxiety, and even gratuitous violence, resulting in more unhappiness and self-centredness,” he wrote.
“The coming Jubilee will thus be a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God. May it help us recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation.”
The year’s events will include a “Jubilee of the World of Communications” from 24 to 26 January, aimed at journalists and media workers, followed by a “Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel” on 8 and 9 February, and “Jubilee of Artists” from 15 to 18 February.
The calendar will include special events for health-care workers, volunteers, migrants, and people with disabilities, as well as for sport (14-15 June) and youth (28 July-3 August).
Cultural highlights, live-streamed by the Vatican, will include a “Jubilee of Bands and Popular Music” (10-11 May) and a “Jubilee of Choirs” (22-23 November).
In a message for the Jubilee, the RC Bishops of England and Wales said that prayers, readings, and other resources had been made available before a planned national Pilgrimage of Hope to St Barnabas’s Cathedral, Nottingham, on 13 September.
CAFOD said that the year would bring “not only a call to spiritual renewal, but a profound rallying cry for economic and ecological justice”, summoning church members to “unite in solidarity” for “a global debt system that protects human and environmental rights, and enables, rather than obstructs, development”.
Jubilee Years, celebrated in the RC Church every 25 years since 1470, with few breaks, are among the world’s oldest regular celebrations.
In his Bull, the Pope said that 2025 would also provide an opportunity to improve the treatment of prisoners, the elderly, and the sick, and to reach out to young people often left “without hope, facing an uncertain and unpromising future”.
He said that the Jubilee should be a reminder that “the goods of the earth are not destined for a privileged few, but for everyone”, while summoning “more affluent nations” to admit “the gravity of so many of their past decisions” by forgiving the debts of poorest countries.
“Forgiveness cannot change what happened in the past, yet it can allow us to change the future and to live different lives, free of anger, animosity and vindictiveness,” the Pope wrote.
“Forgiveness makes possible a brighter future, which enables us to look at the past with different eyes, now more serene, albeit still bearing the trace of past tears.”
In a Christmas message to the Vatican Curia, the Pope warned against gossip: “An evil that destroys social life, makes people’s hearts sick and leads to nothing,” while, in his traditional urbi et orbi message, on Christmas Day, he said that the Jubilee would provide an opportunity to “tear down all walls of separation”, both ideological and physical.
On its website, the British Government warns of a “high threat of terrorist attack” during the Jubilee Year, and cautions those visiting Rome to “stay aware of their surroundings” and avoid “protests, political gatherings or marches”. It also predicts an increase in bag-snatching, pickpocketing, car thefts, and drink-spiking, and highlights dangers from flooding, wildfires, earthquakes, and volcanoes.