Pope Francis on tuesday formally inaugurates the holy year 2025 and revives a old church tradition encourage the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome.
At the beginning of Christmas Eve massFrancis will open the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, which will remain open throughout the year to allow the estimated 32 million pilgrims expected to visit Rome to pass through.
The first holy year was called the year 1300, and more recently they are generally celebrated every 25 to 50 years. Pilgrims who take part can receive “indulgences” – the Catholic Church’s centuries-old feature of the forgiveness of sins roughly equivalent to a “get out of purgatory free” card.
The last regular jubilee was in 2000, when John Paul II ushered in the church’s third millennium. Francis proclaimed a special jubilee in 2015-2016 dedicated to mercy and the next one planned is 2033, to celebrate the anniversary of Christ’s crucifixion.
What is indulgence?
According to Church teaching, Catholics who confess their sins are forgiven and therefore freed from the eternal or spiritual punishment of damnation. An indulgence is designed to remove the “temporal” penalty of sin that may remain—the consequence of that wrong that may interfere with the sinner’s relationships with others.
Martin Luther’s opposition to the church’s practice of selling indulgences inspired him to start the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. He was excommunicated, and the practice of buying and selling indulgences has been illegal since the Council of Trent in 1562. But their granting has continued and is an important feature of Holy Year pilgrimages.
According to the norms issued for the 2025 Jubilee, Catholics may receive indulgences if they:
- Make a pious pilgrimage, participate in masses and other sacraments, at any of the four papal basilicas in Rome or the Holy Land, or other holy places of commemoration “to show the great need for repentance and reconciliation.”
- Engage in works of charity, mercy, or penance, such as visiting prisoners, the sick, or the elderly, or performing physical 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.”
- Abstain, in a spirit of penance, for at least one day a week from “captive distractions,” such as social media, or from “excessive consumption,” such as fasting; or donate the proportional amount to the poor or to help migrants.
Why the focus on prisoners?
Francis has long made ministry to prisoners a hallmark of his priestly vocation, and a Holy Year dedicated to a message of hope is no exception.
In fact, the only other holy door Francis will personally open this year is at the chapel in Rome’s Rebibbia prison, to call attention to the need to give special prisoners hope for a better future.
The last major event of the Holy Year before it ends on January 6, 2026, is the Jubilee of the Captives on December 14, 2025.
What’s on the calendar?
The jubilee calendar is a compilation of official and unofficial Holy Year events that will test the endurance of Francis, who just turned 88 and entered Christmas with a cold that made it difficult for him to catch his breath.
Each month has two, three or four official commemorative events that Francis is expected to attend and which are intended for particular categories of people: the armed forces, artists, priests, the poor, volunteers and teachers. Then there are unofficial commemorative events, where individual dioceses and other groups have organized their own pilgrimages to Rome.
A feature in the Jubilee’s unofficial calendar, September 6, has made news because it has been organized by an Italian association, “La Tenda di Gionata” or “Jonathan’s Tent”, dedicated to making LGBTQ+ Catholics feel more welcome in the Catholic . Church.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in 1936 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and became involved in the Catholic Church after recovering from a serious illness.
What about the safety of so many people?
Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri has said security plans call for a mix of traditional policing — a reported 700 extra officers — plus high-tech surveillance using drones and closed-circuit cameras that, thanks to algorithms informed by artificial intelligence, can keep real-time tabs on crowd sizes and congestion points.
“There will be more vehicles, more men and very, very, shall we say, robust and important security devices,” Gualtieri told reporters last week.
The Vatican has tried to ease congestion for pilgrims by allowing them to book their visits to St. Peter’s Basilica online in advance.
After a driver plowed into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, killing five people, Italian authorities last week sent a circular to police stations around the country recommending “maximum” investigative efforts and to immediately increase surveillance and police patrols around Christmas markets and displays and tourist attractions.
The Vatican, with its natural nursery and giant Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square and an outdoor nativity display in the Bernini colonnade ringing in, qualifies as a high-risk destination.
How else is Rome preparing?
Rome has had two years of intensive preparations for the holy year involving major public works and artistic renovations that have coincided with separate initiatives paid for by the European Union’s covid-19 recovery funds.
Fewer than a third of the 323 anniversary projects have been completed or will be completed by next month, meaning the traffic headaches and eyesores will continue well into 2025 and even 2026. But Romans and visitors are beginning to see some of the finished products.
Bernini’s fountains in Piazza Navona are sparkling white again after a month-long cleaning. A spiffed-up Trevi Fountain reopened over the weekend, and on Monday the anniversary project was unveiled: A pedestrian piazza connecting Castel St. Angelo with Via della Conciliazione, the main boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square.
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