December 26, 2024 
On Christmas Eve 2024, Pope Francis launched the Vatican’s 2025 Jubilee Year, encouraging Christians to use the milestone occasion to dream of a “new world where peace and justice reign.”
“The Jubilee calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us to the transformation of our world so that this year may truly become a time of jubilation,” said Francis during his Christmas Eve Mass.
The Jubilee Year will offer the faithful opportunities to participate in various jubilee events at the Vatican and in their own dioceses. The great tradition of opening the Holy Door occurred at St. Peter’s Basilica on December 24, 2024. Other holy doors will be opened at the Rome basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. For pilgrims who cannot travel to Rome, bishops worldwide are expected to designate their cathedrals or popular Catholic shrines as special places of prayer for Holy Year pilgrims, offering opportunities for reconciliation, indulgences, and other events intended to strengthen and revive faith.
What is a Jubilee?
According to the official 2025 Jubilee Year website, “Jubilee” is the name given to a particular year; the name comes from the instrument used to mark its launch. In this case, the instrument in question is the yobel, the ram’s horn used to proclaim the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This (Jewish) holiday occurs every year, but it takes on special significance when it marks the beginning of a Jubilee year. We can find an early indication of it in the Bible: a Jubilee year was to be marked every 50 years since this would be an “extra” year, one which would happen every seven weeks of seven years, i.e., every 49 years (cf. Leviticus 25:8-13). Even though it wasn’t easy to organize, it was intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.
Quoting the prophet Isaiah, the Gospel of Luke describes Jesus’ mission in this way: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19; cf. Isaiah 61:1-2). Jesus lives out these words in his daily life, in his encounters with others, and in his relationships, all of which bring about liberation and conversion.
In 1300, Pope Boniface VIII called the first Jubilee, also known as a “Holy Year,” since it is a time in which God’s holiness transforms us. The frequency of Holy Years has changed over time: at first, they were celebrated every 100 years; later, in 1343, Pope Clement VI reduced the gap between Jubilees to every 50 years, and in 1470, Pope Paul II made it every 25 years. There have also been “extraordinary” Holy Years: for example, in 1933, Pope Pius XI chose to commemorate the 1900th anniversary of the Redemption, and in 2015, Pope Francis proclaimed the Year of Mercy as an extraordinary jubilee. The way in which Jubilee Years are marked has also changed through the centuries: originally the Holy Year consisted of a pilgrimage to the Roman Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul, later other signs were added, such as the Holy Door. By participating in the Holy Year, one is granted a plenary indulgence.
