ST. PAUL, Minn. (OSV News) — Amid poinsettias and sparkling Christmas trees, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis told Catholics gathered Dec. 28 at the Cathedral of St. Paul that the promise of the 2025 Jubilee of Hope did not disappoint, as the church focused on mercy and conversion.
In his homily, Archbishop Hebda referred to the gleaming crosier he held, recently refurbished after being discovered in a St. Paul scrapyard earlier this year. He called it “an icon for all of us … of what it is that we hope to experience in the Jubilee Year, in that we find we have this opportunity to experience the treasures of the Catholic Church, and we’re given that opportunity for renewal.”
The crosier, an ornate shepherd’s staff that is one of the symbols of a bishop’s office — fortified its rescuer’s waning Catholic faith, Archbishop Hebda said. He added that with the graces of the Holy Year, “We hope that all of us have had the chance to be shined up, to look better, to be ready, and indeed to be instruments of hope” willing to share Christ-centered hope with others.
Masses held at cathedrals on the feast of the Holy Family Dec. 28 marked the closing of diocesan celebrations of the Jubilee Year of Hope, which began at the Vatican Dec. 24, 2024. Bishops opened the year in their dioceses Dec. 29, 2024.
The Holy Year will end at the Vatican Jan. 6, 2026, with the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.
In the United States, bishops gave thanks for the graces of the Holy Year and reflected on the importance of hope. Pope Francis assigned the theme “Pilgrims of Hope” to the ordinary Jubilee Year in “Spes Non Confundit,” a declaration known as a papal bull, announcing the Holy Year issued May 9, 2024.
A jubilee year, also known as a holy year, is ordinarily held every 25 years as a time of repentance and mercy. It includes pilgrimages, especially to Rome. Over the course of the year, millions of pilgrims visited Rome to walk through Holy Doors designated at the city’s four major basilicas: St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, and St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome. Some planned their travels to coincide with particular Vatican celebrations, such as of youth, families and athletes, designed to include an audience with the pope.
Before his final illness and death in April, Pope Francis greeted communication professionals gathered in January for the Jubilee of the World of Communication. After his election in May, Pope Leo XIV continued audiences with jubilee event attendees.
Meanwhile, dioceses worldwide designated holy sites, including their cathedrals, as local pilgrimage designations for the Holy Year.
In Detroit, Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger reflected upon changes that took place in the Jubilee Year, including his appointment to the Archdiocese of Detroit in February.
“I was in a different state, a different place, a different diocese when this started,” Archbishop Weisenburger said in his homily, according to Detroit Catholic, the digital news service of the Archdiocese of Detroit. “Hope has, in so many respects, I feel, been lived out in my life during this time. And as we join with the rest of the universal church in bringing it to a conclusion, I think we recognize that hope is not ended, but hope has in so many ways been restored, sustained and fulfilled.”
He encouraged Catholics to “continue for the rest of our years on this trajectory, this path given to us by Pope Francis and then continued under Pope Leo, recognizing that to be followers of Christ is always and everywhere to be a people of hope.”
In Miami, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski said that the Jubilee Year “could not have come soon enough” and it “has called each one of us to spiritual renewal and to the transformation of the world by reintroducing hope to the world.”
“Perhaps because of the ascendant secularism of our times, perhaps because of the mediocre witness or even counter-witness of too many Christians, many people today have lost hope – or perhaps they never had it in the first place,” he said.
He noted that politics and ideologies are “peddling an ersatz or false hope” with which many try to replace religion. However, “A world without God is a world without hope; without hope, there is no future,” he said. “When the Word became flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary, hope was born — for Jesus, who came into the world to save it, is the hope of the world.”
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston marked the end of the Jubilee Year with Masses celebrated by Archbishop Joe S. Vásquez and Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston and St. Mary Cathedral Basilica in Galveston.
In his homily, Archbishop Vásquez quoted Pope Leo, who Dec. 20 said that “the hope this year has given us does not end.”
In Los Angeles, Archbishop José H. Gomez encouraged people to foster hope in their families, tying the Jubilee theme to the liturgical feast, which celebrated the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
“Jesus is our hope,” Archbishop Gomez said. “In the child who comes to us in the silence of the holy night, we are given the power to become children of God, sons and daughters of God. And when we reflect on the story of Christmas, we notice that when the Magi and the shepherds go off in search of Jesus, they find Mary and Joseph and the infant lying in the manger. They find Jesus in the heart of his human family. And my dear brothers and sisters, God wants us to find Jesus in our own families. … And love is what makes our families holy.”
In St. Paul, Archbishop Hebda also emphasized that God calls the faithful to form their faith in the context of family, with Jesus, Mary and Joseph as examples.
“The hope, brothers and sisters, is that throughout this year we’ve had the opportunity to really engage in conversion, to come before the Lord, to recognize our sinfulness, to recognize our neediness, and to seek the Lord’s extraordinary mercy,” he said, adding, “A Holy Year is always a time of extraordinary grace.”
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