What is a Jubilee/Holy Year?

A holy year, or jubilee, is a time of pilgrimage, prayer, repentance, and acts of mercy, based on the Old Testament tradition of a jubilee year of rest, forgiveness, and renewal. Holy years also are a time when Catholics make pilgrimages to designated churches and shrines, recite special prayers, go to confession, and receive Communion to receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one's sins. A Holy Year is celebrated every 25 years, and it is an acknowledgment that “the Christian life is a journey calling for moments of greater intensity to encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps toward the goal of our encounter with the Lord Jesus,” Pope Francis wrote.

Pope Francis has chosen the theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” for the jubilee year, which is marked by pilgrimages, prayer, repentance, and acts of mercy. The Pope prayed that the Holy Year would be marked by “deep faith, lively hope and active charity.”

Pope Francis opened the Holy Door to St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve, inaugurating the Jubilee Year 2025 with its individual, parish, and diocesan pilgrimages and with special celebrations focused on specific groups from migrants to marching bands, catechists to communicators, and priests to prisoners.

Crossing the threshold of the Holy Door does not give a person automatic access to the indulgence or to grace, as St. John Paul II said in his document proclaiming the Holy Year 2000. But walking through the doorway is a sign of the passage from sin to grace that every Christian is called to accomplish.

“To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; it is to strengthen faith in him in order to live the new life which he has given us. It is a decision which presumes freedom to choose and also the courage to leave something behind, in the knowledge that what is gained is divine life,” St. John Paul II wrote.

The multilingual jubilee website—www.iubilaeum2025.va—has been up and running for months and includes the possibility of reserving a time to pass through the Holy Door at St. Peter's and the other major basilicas of Rome.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also has a special section on its website—www.usccb.org/committees/jubilee-2025—with information about traveling to Rome for the Holy Year and for celebrating the special jubilees in one's own diocese or parish.