VATICAN: Pope Francis Opens Holy Door to Kick Off Jubilee Year 2025

Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA

On Christmas Eve Tuesday, December 24, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, marking the official launch of the Jubilee year 2025, a historic event that takes place every 25 years in the Catholic Church.

In his message published on the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, to mark the beginning of the Ordinary Jubilee the Holy Father said, “Brothers and sisters, with the opening of the Holy Door we have inaugurated a new Jubilee, and each of us can enter into the mystery of this extraordinary event.”

He continued in relation to the theme of the Jubilee year: ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’ “Tonight, the door of hope has opened wide to the world. Tonight, God speaks to each of us and says: there is hope also for you! There is hope for each of us.”

Expounding on the essence of the Jubilee year which will conclude with the closing of the same Holy Door on the Solemnity of Epiphany of the Lord on 6 January 2026, the Pontiff noted that Jubilee is the season of hope in which all are invited to rediscover the joy of meeting the Lord.

“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,” reads part of the message as it continues, “A jubilee for our mother Earth, disfigured by profiteering; a time of jubilee for the poorer countries burdened beneath unfair debts; a time of jubilee for all those who are in bondage to forms of slavery old and new.”

According to Pope Francis on Spes Non Confundit, Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee year 2025, since hope does not disappoint, It is an enduring and indomitable force and suggests that, even in the face of challenges, despair, or uncertainty, the human spirit retains the capacity to aspire for better days and find strength in the possibility of positive change.

“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. Even so, 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,” he said and encouraged the people of God, “May the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope. Taking it as our guide, let us return to the message that the Apostle Paul wished to communicate to the Christians of Rome.”

During the rite of opening the Holy Door, the Pope prayed, “In this season of grace and reconciliation grant that we may put our trust in your mercy alone and discover once more the way that leads to the Father.”

He added, “Open our souls to the working of the Holy Spirit, that he may soften the hardness of our hearts, that enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries may join hands, and peoples seek to meet together.”

After the opening of the Holy Door on Tuesday 24, the Holy Father for the first time in the Jubilee tradition, opened a fifth sacred portal in a Roman prison. On Sunday, 29 December, opened the Holy Door of his cathedral, Saint John Lateran, and then, on Wednesday, January 01, 2025, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major was opened.

The opening of the Holy Door of the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls will take place on Sunday, January 05, 2025.