Pope Francis has called for a Jubilee year in 2025. This a special year in the Catholic Church, usually celebrated every 25 years, focusing on reconciliation and spiritual renewal.

What is a Jubilee Year?

• A Holy Year of the forgiveness of sin, conversion and joyful celebration.
• The word “jubilee” comes from the Hebrew word yobel, which refers to the ram’s horn used to announce a jubilee in the Old Testament.

Pope Francis has named 2025 a year of “Hope”

Pope Francis wrote: “In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring.”

“Uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt.”

“Often we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic, and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness. For all of us, may this Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope. God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope.”

Plenary indulgence

A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.

Plenary indulgences remove the temporal punishment (Purgatory time) for sins that have already been forgiven. These indulgences can be applied to souls currently suffering in Purgatory.

General Conditions

A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day. In order to obtain it, the faithful must, in addition to being in the state of grace:
have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin;
have sacramentally confessed their sins;
receive the Holy Eucharist (it is certainly better to receive it while participating in Holy
Mass, but for the indulgence only Holy Communion is required);
pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.

The Jubilee Prayer

Father in heaven,
may the faith you have given us
in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,
and the flame of charity enkindled
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us the blessed hope
for the coming of your Kingdom.

May your grace transform us
into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos
in the sure expectation
of a new heaven and a new earth,
when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,
your glory will shine eternally.

May the grace of the Jubilee
reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread
the joy and peace of our Redeemer
throughout the earth.
To You our God, eternally blessed,
be glory and praise for ever.

Amen