Jubilee 2025
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Become a pilgrim of hope in 2025Pope Francis has declared 2025 a jubilee year with the theme "pilgrims of hope." The resources, prayers, and events on this page will help you to make this year a holy pilgrimage that draws you closer to Christ through hope.
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Diocesan Pious Visits
These are sites where one makes a pious visit to obtain the Jubilee Year indulgence without going to Rome.
Allegheny County – St. Paul Cathedral, Oakland, St. Paul Cathedral Parish
Beaver County – St. Monica Church, Beaver Fall, St. Augustine Parish
Butler County - St. Peter Church, Butler, All Saints Parish, St. Matthias Parish
Greene County - St. Ann Church, Waynesburg
Lawrence County – St. Mary Church, New Castle Holy Spirit Parish
Washington County – Immaculate Conception Church, Washington
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See highlights from the Opening Mass of the Jubilee Year in our diocese
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Opening Mass
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On December 28, 2024, Bishop David Zubik celebrated the opening Mass of Jubilee 2025.
The Mass began in the gym at Oakland Catholic High School with readings from the papal bull, followed by a candlelight procession to the cathedral led by the diocesan jubilee crucifix, and a Sprinkling Rite.
Click the icon to the right to view photos from our opening Mass and procession.
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Bishop Zubik's homily
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Celebrate with usJubilee 2025 events in our diocese
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Receive text and email updates on the Jubilee
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Complete the form below or text JUBILEE2025 to 84576 to register for regular diocesan updates on Jubilee 2025.
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Register below
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All Catholics are invited to celebrate a
Jubilee Year of Hope in 2025From Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine-
Written by Erica Gamerro, Director of Liturgy & Worship for the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Episcopal Master of Ceremonies
Since the thirteenth century, the Catholic Church has celebrated a year of jubilee every 25 years. These special years of grace observe the year of messianic
The Jubilee Year will begin in Rome on the vigil of the Lord’s Nativity (December 24, 2024). Local dioceses will mark the start of the jubilee year on Holy Family Sunday (December 29, 2024). The year will conclude in local dioceses on Holy Family Sunday (December 28, 2025) and in Rome on the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord (January 6, 2026). The Diocese of Pittsburgh will celebrate the opening Mass of the Jubilee Year on Saturday, December 28, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. at Saint Paul Cathedral. Bishop David Zubik will be the celebrant. The Vatican has provided a special ritual to dioceses to open the Jubilee Year. The Mass will begin in the gym at Oakland Catholic High School with readings from the Papal Bull, followed by a candlelight procession to the cathedral led by our diocesan jubilee crucifix, and a Sprinkling Rite. All are encouraged and welcome to join us!
favor begun by Christ through his Incarnation and Paschal Mystery. On May 9, 2024, Pope Francis released a papal bull, or a decree written by the pope, called Spes non confundit (“Hope does not disappoint”) that announced the jubilee year of 2025. Our Holy Father sees the upcoming year as an opportunity to be “renewed in hope.”
Jubilee years typically include pilgrimages, processions, special celebrations of Mass, and a renewed invitation to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. These liturgies are an opportunity to receive mercy and extend mercy. One of the ways we receive mercy during a jubilee year is with a Plenary Indulgence. However, we are to give what we receive. So, each Catholic is called to practice both the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy both in thanks for the mercy that God has bestowed to us and in response to being a disciple of his Son, Jesus Christ.
The year 2025 marks two significant ecumenical opportunities for our Church. The first is the 1700th Anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church which gave birth to the Nicene Creed. The second is the alignment of the Gregorian and Julian calendars on the date of Easter. This shared date provides a rare opportunity for all Christians to celebrate the most important solemnity of our faith on the same day.
In the bull, our Holy Father reflects on Romans 5:1-5, which reads: “Since we are justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God… Hope does not disappoint,
because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Pope Francis writes that hope “is founded on faith and nurtured by charity, it enables us to press forward in life.” When we look at our world, country, community, and families, we see individuals yearning for hope where it seems as though it has been lost in the darkness of sin and evil. Embracing a year of hope invites us to live now with faith and charity and to look to the future with joyful expectation bathed in the light of Christ.
Pope Francis mentions a virtue closely linked with hope – patience. He observes that we live in a modern world and an impatient culture but patience “sustains our hope and strengthens it as a virtue and a way of life.” The pope encourages us to take time to appreciate this virtue and to persevere in our trust in God and his promises.
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A glossary for Jubilee 2025
- Conversations in the Spirit
- Council of Nicea
- Ecumenism
- Holy Year
- Jubilee
- Holy Door
- Indulgence
- Missionaries of Mercy
- Papal bull
- Pilgrimage
- Pious visits
- Works of Mercy
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Conversations in the Spirit
A way of discerning the leading of the Holy Spirit, in which a small group of people engage in prayerful discussion.
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Council of Nicea
Held in 325 AD, it was the first Churchwide council of bishops. It produced the Nicene Creed, which is accepted by the Catholic, Orthodox, and some Protestant traditions.
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Ecumenism
A constructive relationship between Christians of the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions.
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Holy Year
A synonym for “Jubilee,” this is a year of reconciliation, forgiveness, and conversion, as well as an opportunity for solidarity, hope, and justice.
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Jubilee
Celebrated every 25 years since the Middle Ages, the word comes from the biblical law that every half century God’s people were to celebrate a special year for reconciliation with Him and their neighbors, including forgiveness of debts and return of land. Popes can declare an “extraordinary” jubilee outside the 25- year cycle.
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Holy Door
Representing the passage to salvation, these doors remind us that Jesus stands at our door and knocks. Opened only in Holy Years, primarily at the four major basilicas in Rome, they are the culmination of a pilgrimage and the means to a plenary indulgence.
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Indulgence
A gift to us from God through the Church, an indulgence releases us from the temporal punishment (lingering consequences) of sins that have already been forgiven through the sacrament of reconciliation. With a contrite heart, we are to carry out prescribed conditions which may include pilgrimage, the sacrament of reconciliation, reception of Holy Communion, prayer, and acts of mercy.
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Missionaries of Mercy
Priests commissioned by the Holy Father to bring the forgiveness of God to others through promotion of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The pope has also granted them authority to forgive sins ordinarily reserved to the Holy See (such as profaning the Eucharist, violating the sacrament of reconciliation, or absolution of an accomplice in adultery).
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Papal bull
A decree written by the pope, the name comes from the Latin “bulla,” for the official seal on the document. The bull for Jubilee 2025 is “Spes non confundit” (“Hope does not disappoint”).
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Pilgrimage
A spiritual journey that involves travel to a holy site, with a goal of growing closer to God.
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Pious visits
Pilgrimages to the local cathedral, or other churches designated by the bishop, where Catholics can obtain the Jubilee Year indulgence without going to Rome.
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Works of Mercy
Actions we take to help others. These may be spiritual (prayer, comfort, teaching, counseling, correction, forbearance and forgiveness) or corporal (offering food, drink, donations or clothing to the poor, sheltering the homeless, visiting those who are sick or in prison, and burying the dead).
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Jubilee Celebration Calendar 2025
See below the dates for jubilee celebrations in Rome. Observe them locally at your parish and in your personal prayer.
January
• 24-26: World of Communications
February• 8-9: Armed Forces, Police, and Security Officials
• 16-18: Artists
• 21-23: Deacons
March
• 8-9: Voluntary Workers
• 28: 24 Hours for the Lord
• 28-30: Missionaries of Mercy
April
• 5-6: Sick and Health Care Workers
• 25-27: Adolescents/Youth
• 28-30: Persons with Disabilities
May
• 1-4: Workers
• 4-5: Business and Entrepreneurship
• 10-11: Musical Bands
• 16-18: Confraternities
• 24-25: Children
• 30: Families, Grandparents, and the Elderly
June
• 1: Families, Grandparents, and the Elderly
• 7-8: Church Movements, Associations, and New Communities
• 9: Holy See
• 14-15: Sports
• 20-22: Government Staff
• 23-24: Seminarians
• 25: Bishops
• 25-27: Priests
• 28: Eastern Churches
July/August:
• July 28- Aug. 3: Young People/Young Adults
September
• 15: Consolation
• 20: World of Justice
• 26-28: Catechists
October
• 8-9: Consecrated Life
• 11-12: Marian Spirituality
• 18-19: Missionary World
• 30: World of Education
November
• 2: World of Education
• 16: The Poor
• 21-23: Choirs
December
• 14: Prisoners
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Contact Us
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Erica Gamerroegamerrodiopitt.orgDirector, Department of Liturgy and Worship, and Episcopal Master of Ceremonies
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