2025 Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope

Half a million pilgrims have already crossed the threshold of St Peter’s Holy Door

09/01/2025

Pilgrims process up Via della Conciliazione towards St Peter’s Basilica  (VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto)

Over half a million pilgrims have already passed through St Peter’s Basilica’s Holy Door since the Jubilee Year 2025 began just two weeks ago. According to a press statement released on Tuesday, a total of 545,532 faithful from across the globe have made the pilgrimage to Rome.

The opening of the Jubilee year took place on the 24th of December 2024 and since then pilgrims have been arriving in groups and processing up Via della Conciliazione – led by the symbolic Jubilee Cross – to reach St Peter’s Basilica… Read more »

Jubilee Year churches in Malta designated for plenary indulgences announced

02/01/2025

Archbishop Charles Scicluna has announced the list of sacred churches in Malta linked to the granting of the plenary indulgence during this Jubilee Year dedicated to the virtue of hope.

In the words of Pope Francis, plenary indulgence offer the faithful the opportunity to rediscover “the unlimited nature of God’s mercy.” Also through visits to these sacred places, “we allow the Lord to erase our sins, to heal our hearts, to raise us up, to embrace us and to reveal to us his tender and compassionate (Spes Non Confundit, 23)… Read more »

The Pope: May 2025 be a year of true peace that goes beyond quibbling over the details of agreements and human compromises

Message of Pope Francis for the 58th World Day of Peace

01/01/2025

Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace

I. Listening to the plea of an endangered humanity

1. At the dawn of this New Year given to us by our heavenly Father, a year of Jubilee in the spirit of hope, I offer heartfelt good wishes of peace to every man and woman. I think especially of those who feel downtrodden, burdened by their past mistakes, oppressed by the judgment of others and incapable of perceiving even a glimmer of hope for their own lives… Read more »

Pope Francis ‘throws open’ Holy Door to inaugurate 2025 Jubilee

24/12/2024   Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City

An angel of the Lord, bathed in light, illumines the night and brings glad tidings to the shepherds: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:10-11). Heaven breaks forth upon earth amid the wonder of the poor and the singing of angels… Read more »

Popes and Jubilees: The opening of the Holy Door in history

24/12/2024

Starting from the Holy Year of 1900, we retrace some key moments of the ceremonies for the opening of the Holy Door.

One of the symbolic images of every Jubilee is that of the Pontiff crossing the threshold of the Holy Door. This is a moment deeply rooted in the Middle Ages. The first pilgrim to cross the threshold is always the Bishop of Rome… Read more »

The opening of the Jubilee of Hope in the Archdiocese of Malta

20/12/2024

On Sunday, 29th December 2024, Archbishop Charles Scicluna will inaugurate the Jubilee Year 2025 in the Archdiocese of Malta under the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”. This event follows the official opening of the Holy Year by Pope Francis on Christmas Eve, marked by the opening of the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, where the Pope will then preside over Mass.

The celebration in the Church of Malta will begin at 5:00pm with a liturgical rite observed across the Catholic world… Read more »

Pope’s World Day of Peace message: ‘We are all in debt to God’

12/12/2024

File photo of Pope Francis in prayer  (VATICAN MEDIA Divisione Foto)

In his message for the 58th World Day of Peace marked on 1 January, Pope Francis reflects on the central theme of the upcoming Jubilee of Hope and reiterates his pressing appeal for debt forgiveness, reminding us that we are all “debtors” to God and one another.

Hope has been a constant theme in all of Pope Francis’ World Day of Peace messages… Read more »

Carlo Acutis to be proclaimed a saint next April

20/11/2024

Pope Francis has confirmed that Carlo Acutis will become the first Catholic saint from the millennial generation next April, during a weekend dedicated to teenagers as part of the Jubilee of 2025.

Acutis was born in London in 1991 to Italian parents who moved back to Italy shortly after his birth.

Known for his computer skills and religious faith, Acutis had created and maintained various websites, including a website that catalogued Eucharistic miracles and another which listed approved Marian apparitions, as well as the website of the Milan parish in which he lived… Read more »

Pope Francis: Hope is a gift and duty for every Christian

07/11/2024

Pope Francis writes that hope is a gift from God and a task that must be cultivated by all Christians, in the introduction to his new book, “Hope Is A Light In The Night,” which collects excerpts from various speeches by the Pope on the theological virtue of hope.

The Jubilee of 2025, a holy year that I wanted to dedicate to the theme “Pilgrims of Hope”, is a propitious occasion to reflect on this fundamental and decisive Christian virtue – especially in times like the ones we are living, in which the third world war being fought “piecemeal” that is unfolding before our eyes can lead us to assume attitudes of gloomy discouragement and ill-concealed cynicism… Read more »

Meet ‘Luce’: The Vatican’s cartoon mascot for Jubilee 2025

28/10/2024

Ahead of the 2025 Jubilee, the Vatican has launched a cartoon mascot unveiled Monday as the cheerful face of the Catholic Church’s upcoming holy year.

The mascot, named Luce — which means “light” in Italian — is intended to engage a younger audience and guide visitors through the holy year.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Vatican’s chief organizer for the jubilee, described the mascot as part of the Vatican’s goal to engage with “the pop culture so beloved by our young people.”

The mascot will debut this week at the Lucca Comics and Games, Italy’s celebrated convention for all things comics, video games, and fantasy, where the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization will host a space dedicated to “Luce and Friends.”

It will be the first time that a Vatican dicastery participates in a comics convention… Read more »