EDITORIAL: Just how desperately we need hope in today’s troubled world was made apparent though the darkness of the events that occurred in the middle of this Advent season.
From a Catholic perspective, clearly the biggest news story of the year was the death of Pope Francis in April and the subsequent election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope in the Church’s 2,000-year history.
Arguably, though, Pope Leo’s elevation to the papal office was only the second-biggest Catholic event of 2025. In terms of our faith lives, the Jubilee Year of Hope might hold even more significance — and the good news is, the Jubilee Year and its spiritual benefits will continue to be available for a little while longer.
Pope Francis had the spiritual intuition to proclaim a Jubilee Year of Hope for 2025, thereby launching what would turn out to be the final great event of his 12-year papacy. Shortly after initiating the Jubilee Year by opening St. Peter’s Basilica’s Holy Door on Christmas Eve, Francis followed up by opening another Holy Door in a Roman prison — powerfully symbolizing the determination he manifested throughout his pontificate of communicating the mercy and forgiveness of Jesus to the most marginalized members of contemporary societies.
“I wanted the second one to be here, in a prison,” Pope Francis told inmates on Dec. 26. “I wanted each of us here, inside and out, to have the possibility of throwing open the door of our hearts and understanding that hope doesn’t disappoint.”
Since his election in May, Pope Leo has fully embraced his predecessor’s Jubilee of Hope initiative, most notably at the remarkable Jubilee of Youth last summer in Rome that gathered together 1 million young people, in a joyful collective Christian witness.
The Holy Father’s most recent Jubilee event was on Dec. 14, when he celebrated a Mass for prisoners around the world. “Let no one be lost! Let all be saved! This is what our God wants, this is his Kingdom, and this is the goal of his actions in the world,” the Pope declared at the conclusion of his Gaudete Sunday homily marking the occasion.
Since Old Testament times, mercy for those who are physically in jail has been a component of jubilee years. But while the Church’s own jubilees have maintained and strengthened this specific focus, Christian hope centers above all on the deliverance of every human person from the prison of sin, as Leo’s homily emphasized. Consequently, throughout the Jubilee Year of Hope, faithful Catholics have been encouraged to deepen their own sacramental spiritual life, to better prepare themselves to receive the gift of eternal salvation that was made available to us through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, as well as become better disciples of Christ in this life by striving to help others.
Just how desperately we need hope in today’s troubled world was made apparent though the darkness of the events that occurred in the middle of this Advent season — the deadly attack on two American soldiers in Syria; the murder of two students and the wounding of several others at Brown University; the brutal slaying of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele at their home in Los Angeles; and the horrific slaughter of Jewish celebrants of Hanukkah in Australia.
The celebration of Christmas and the conclusion of the Jubilee Year soon afterward can’t remove the profound pain these events have caused. But together, they can jointly remind us that, despite such sorrows, the Christian hope of salvation remains eternally alive and present.
Another important thing to recall is that through specific observances, including pilgrimages, pious visits to sacred places, works of mercy and penance, and recourse to the sacrament of reconciliation, Catholics can obtain a Jubilee Year plenary indulgence remitting all of the temporal punishments attached to their previous sinful actions. Sometimes we can overlook what an immense grace it is for our souls to be spared, by such an indulgence, from the pains of purgatory that we would otherwise warrant for our past moral misdeeds.
And if you haven’t done so already, there is still time to obtain this special plenary indulgence, since the Jubilee Year of Hope doesn’t end until Pope Leo closes the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 6, the Solemnity of the Epiphany. There’s no more hopeful and fitting way than that to start the new year.
This article was originally published by NCRegister.
