Pilgrims of Hope

The Catholic Church is in the midst of celebrating the Jubilee Year 2025, a year of prayer, forgiveness, reconciliation and pilgrimage. This special year opened at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome by Pope Francis on Dec. 24, 2024, and will go to Dec. 23, 2025. 
 
A jubilee year is traditionally proclaimed by the Universal Church every 25 years. It is a particular year set aside to encourage the faithful to embark on pilgrimages, to repent of their sins and forgive the sins of others and to renew a focus on the spiritual life.
 
The theme for the year is "Pilgrims of Hope.” This motto was chosen to help restore hope and trust, and to care for the environment. The official logo features a figure holding a cross, which represents faith and hope. The cross bends down towards humanity, and the lower part of the cross is shaped like an anchor, which symbolizes hope.
 
Catholics are encouraged to make pilgrimages to Rome during a jubilee year, but that is clearly not a possibility for many people. For those in our diocese, the holy doors of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit were opened by Bishop Kagan on Dec. 28, the vigil Mass for the Feast of the Holy Family. He offered special prayers to begin the holy year and processed through the bronze doors of the Cathedral symbolizing the opening of the holy door of the jubilee year.
 
Throughout this holy year, the pilgrims of the Bismarck Diocese are invited to pass through these holy doors when making a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. The symbol, or object, of the holy year is the processional crucifix which has been given a place of honor in the sanctuary of the Cathedral. This crucifix will serve as the destination for the holy year pilgrimage.
 
Plenary indulgence
 
During the jubilee year, all the faithful who are truly repentant and free from any affection for sin, who are moved by a spirit of charity and who, purified through the sacrament of penance and refreshed by Holy Communion, pray for the intentions of the pope, will be able to obtain a plenary indulgence. This indulgence grants remission and forgiveness of all our sins, which can be applied in suffrage to the souls in purgatory.

There are three basic ways to obtain a plenary indulgence during the holy year.

One of the ways is through pilgrimages. This includes pilgrimages to specific sites in Rome, specific sites in the Holy Land and then also to other ecclesiastical areas. For us in the Bismarck Diocese, you can obtain the jubilee indulgence by visiting the Cathedral while on pilgrimage.
 
There is also an opportunity to receive the indulgence through a “pious visit” to specific places. A pious visit is distinct from a pilgrimage simply because it is not a formal pilgrimage. What constitutes a pious visit is if: “Individually or in a group, [the faithful] devoutly visit any jubilee site and there, for a suitable period of time, engage in Eucharistic adoration and meditation, concluding with the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and invocations of Mary, the Mother of God, so that in this Holy Year everyone ‘will come to know the closeness of Mary, the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children’ (Spes non confundit, 24).”
 
When speaking of a “jubilee site,” this would be any place to which you can make a pilgrimage during the jubilee year (the Cathedral in our diocese) as well as the few additional places throughout the world.
 
Another way to obtain the indulgence during the jubilee year is by engaging in works of mercy and penance. The faithful, with a devout spirit, can participate in popular missions, spiritual exercises or formation activities on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, held in a church or other suitable place, according to the mind of the Holy Father. This also includes performing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, in a sense making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them according to the usual spiritual, sacramental and prayer conditions. The faithful would also add in penitential practices (for example by fasting or practicing abstinence according to the general norms of the Church), making charitable monetary donations and by supporting those less fortunate in our community and the world.
 
Vatican app available
 
To follow along during the year’s events, the jubilee mobile app from the Vatican is available for iOS and Android, and can be used to register for events, obtain a pilgrim card and access news about the jubilee. More information can be found at www.iubilaeum2025.va/en.html.
 
—Staff report
 
The Jubilee Prayer
 
Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.
 
May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.
 
May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever. Amen.