• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Visitors pass through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica during the Jubilee of the World of Communications at the Vatican Jan. 25, 2025. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

What is a jubilee?

March 10, 2025
By Father James Goodwin
OSV News
Filed Under: Commentary, Jubilee 2025

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

The year 2025 has been declared by Pope Francis as a jubilee year. But what does that mean? What is a jubilee? How do we celebrate it?

The roots of a jubilee year are found in Scripture. As described in Leviticus 25, every 50th year was to be celebrated as a jubilee year in which all debt was forgiven, slaves were freed and their ancestral lands could be reclaimed.

This followed a cycle: seven years times seven years, for 49 years. Jubilees, as celebrated by the Israelites, were a sort of reset button. Some people had to sell their property due to debt and work the land for the new owner, essentially left in a form of slavery. However, every jubilee offered the opportunity for debt to be canceled and property to be returned.

In Isaiah 61, the prophet prophesies a Messianic jubilee. This was fulfilled by Jesus, which he proclaims in the fourth chapter of St. Luke’s Gospel. Christ is our Jubilee, who frees us from bondage to death, sin and the devil. Through him we are returned to our homeland, which is heaven, as part of God’s family.

In the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII declared a jubilee in Rome. A plenary indulgence was granted to those who visited the Roman Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, who were contrite and who confessed their sins.

Boniface VIII’s jubilee year turned out to be a wildly popular idea and pilgrims flocked to Rome. At first there were variations to the schedule by which they were observed. The original idea was every 100 years, but sometimes it was 33 years or some other number. Eventually it was settled to celebrate jubilees every quarter century, as proclaimed by Pope Paul II in 1470.

In 1500, all four major basilicas — St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran — in Rome opened up Holy Doors for the Jubilee year. Entering through the Holy Doors, otherwise sealed outside the jubilees, was the traditional way to make the pilgrimage. Occasionally, popes have declared extraordinary jubilee years for special reasons.

To inaugurate the 2025 jubilee, Pope Francis has issued the papal bull “Spes Non Confundit,” which means “hope does not disappoint.” The Jubilee Year began Dec. 24, 2024, and continues through Jan. 6, 2026. Holy Doors are open for the 2025 Jubilee only at the four Roman basilicas, with an additional Holy Door at a prison in Rome.

As the church celebrates the 2025th anniversary of Christ’s birth, the pope has drawn our attention to the theological virtue of hope. As a unique opportunity to encounter Christ, the pope expressed his desire to see this jubilee year as an opportunity to also proclaim Christ anew, and bring others to know the hope we find in Christ alone.

Noting how “hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross,” (“Spes Non Confundit,” No. 3), the pope reiterates that the jubilee is an opportunity to respond to God’s call “to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind” (No. 10).

A key feature of this Jubilee Year, as with others in the past, is the various opportunities offered to the faithful to obtain jubilee plenary indulgences. This is in keeping with the scriptural understanding that a jubilee meant freedom from slavery and restoration to one’s family.

An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment of sin when the eternal punishment has already been forgiven in the sacrament of penance. It is not an automatic “get out of hell free” card. The faithful must be truly repentant and free from any affection for sin, moved by the spirit of charity, purified through the sacrament of penance, refreshed by holy Communion, and pray for the intentions of the pope. Indulgences can be applied as suffrages for the souls in purgatory.

There are three ways to gain this indulgence. First, undertake a pilgrimage to a major basilica in Rome. While there, participate in some form of worship or prayer, such as Mass, Stations of the Cross or the rosary. Second, if that is not possible, there are other designated basilicas and shrines one can visit. Each diocese can choose its cathedral and other churches as pilgrimage sites. There are a variety of specific opportunities to obtain indulgences in this jubilee year through pilgrimage, prayer, or specific penances or works of charity and mercy.

Additionally, for this jubilee, a Catholic can gain a second plenary indulgence each day for the poor souls in purgatory by carrying out an act of charity. The usual conditions apply, including receiving holy Communion in the context of Mass a second time that day. This is a very unusual concession on the part of the Holy Father.

Therefore, everyone can participate in and benefit from the jubilee this Holy Year 2025. Check out what your local diocese is doing and where the pilgrimage sites are in your area. Make this year a truly holy year of abundant grace in your life.

Read More Jubilee 2025

Malta in the Jubilee Year: A quieter pilgrimage of hope

Cuban bishops urge leaders to address nation’s economic crisis

Pope Francis dies during Jubilee, leaving Holy Door open in papal first

Be ‘heralds of hope,’ pope asks priests in homily for chrism Mass

God fills 6,000 pilgrims ‘with his graces’ as they take to LA streets with prayer, witness

Registration opens for 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage events in 10 states

Copyright © 2025 OSV News

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Father James Goodwin

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Sculpture of St. Rita and St. Therese with a cross and holy water font at the center sits on a table

A Gift and a Connection to the Past

Expert discusses serious harms of smartphones for children and how to limit their use

Cupcakes with 2025 graduation toothpicks in them and a bowl of cookies

Our 31-hour Road Trip

St. Paul and discovering that sin is ‘missing the mark’

Six lit candles on a chocolate birthday cake

Making a birthday wish come true

| Recent Local News |

Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86

Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest

Sister Ann Belz dies at 88

Archbishop Lori announces clergy appointments, including pastor and associate pastors

DUAL ENROLLMENT

Double the learning: Dual enrollment provides college credit to high school students

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • A Gift and a Connection to the Past
  • Father Herman Benedict Czaster, former Curley teacher, dies at 86
  • Loyola University Maryland graduate ordained Jesuit priest
  • Sister Ann Belz dies at 88
  • Expert discusses serious harms of smartphones for children and how to limit their use
  • Movie Review: Superman
  • Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order as part of class action lawsuit
  • Ukraine religious leaders issue ‘desperate cry’ to world to end Russia’s war
  • Pope Leo wears Chicago-made vestments to July 9 ‘care of creation’ Mass

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en