As jubilee year ends, the faithful heed Pope Leo’s call to keep the church alive

VATICAN CITY (OSV News) — After a jubilee year not seen for centuries — with one pope opening the Holy Door and another closing it — Pope Leo XIV ended the Jubilee Year of Hope at St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 6 telling the world to love and seek peace, protect what is holy, and flee from modern efficiency.

But what really stayed with the faithful — not only the lucky hundreds inside the basilica but also the thousands soaked in the pouring winter rain in St. Peter’s Square — was Pope Leo’s urging to keep the church alive.

“If we do not reduce our churches to monuments, if our communities are homes, if we stand united and resist the flattery and seduction of those in power, then we will be the generation of a new dawn,” the pope said. He asked the faithful: “Is there life in our Church? Is there space for something new to be born? Do we love and proclaim a God who sets us on a journey?”

Those gathered in St. Peter’s Square took the Holy Father’s words to heart.

Wioletta — raised in Torun, Poland, active in the Church since she was young, and now a mother of four — told OSV News that the Jubilee pilgrimage itself is a sign that, in order to keep the Church thriving, “you have to go forward, even if the weather is not encouraging to do so,” she said with a smile as she clutched her umbrella.

“All those people prove it, right?” she said. “They could have stayed home, but they came to the square. Why did they come? Why did they wake up at 4 or 5 a.m.? Because this is the hope of the world. And because the end of the jubilee year is in fact a beginning.”

Catholics have to work hard “so that neither faith nor ideology divides us,” she said. It is about having that “attitude, morality, humanity, sensitivity to others, and empathy. I think that will hold true.”

Wioletta also reflected that young people in Europe “are hungry for God and spirituality” precisely because they are tired of, as Pope Leo said, living in a world of consumers and products. “In a secularized world, they are thirsty for the spirit,” she said.

Wioletta’s friend, Iwona, stressed that the universality of the Church was felt throughout the jubilee year.

“Yesterday we experienced an incredible Holy Mass,” she said, describing how they had joined a group from Vietnam. “We understood absolutely nothing except from the ‘Amen’ and ‘Hallelujah,’ but we felt such community, such communion with these people that in fact we understood everything, because Christ came first.”

She said when they talked to the Vietnamese pilgrims afterward, “they said we were incredibly lucky to live in a country like Poland, with the freedom they don’t have. And that’s why I end this year with hope.”

Larisa, a woman from Colombia who was visiting Rome for the first time, said that she hoped the ending of the jubilee year will bring with it Christ’s healing during a turbulent time for her continent.

“Colombia and Latin America have gone through many difficult things through all these years,” she said, adding that she wished to “sustain the hope” and “wait that something better is about to come” with “Christ as our hope.”

For Diane, who is originally from Peru but who has lived as a member of Secular Institute of Mary Servant of the Lord in Mexico for the last 23 years, the Church can reach those who seem distant, especially young people today “in their hardships — or a day-to-day where they manifest their inner doubts about faith,” she said, adding “we can walk along with them.”

Pauline, who came from the English city of Birmingham with her friend, told OSV News they were one of the last of the 33 million pilgrims who walked through the Holy Door into St. Peter’s Basilica.

For Pauline, the year has had some challenges, and yet it “comes to a conclusion with hope still,” she said. Just like after the unexpected death of Pope Francis in the midst of the jubilee year, she said, “we’re comforted by Pope Leo.”

She emphasized the jubilee showed “a great sense of unity and youth,” with “many, many younger Catholics” present.

For Kristin, who traveled to Rome from Germany, the Jubilee was a moment of mercy and unity, but also “the challenge of actually bringing that faith to our society.”

In Germany, “I’d say we are very secular,” said Kristin, who brought multiple groups to Rome with her Institute of Mary Servant of the Lord during the jubilee year.

“Many people are baptized, but not many of them actually live their faith,” she said. “I think it’s up to those who have discovered faith and God as something essential in their lives … to carry that to others.”

As the Holy Doors closed and the soaked pilgrims left the square, a souvenir store assistant right outside the Bernini Colonnade smiled.

“Those people that entered our store throughout the jubilee were just full of such energy,” said Alessia. “It was unforgettable.”

And, though the 2025 Jubilee Year has reached its conclusion, that little store on the Borgo Santo Spirito, opened just as the year itself was opening, will remain.

Its name? “Hope.”

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