Celebrations mark the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Hope in the archdiocese

People process across Meridian Street from the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Catholic Center to SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral on Dec. 29 after a prayer service to mark the start of the 2025 Jubilee Year, whose theme is “Pilgrims of Hope.” (Photo by Mike Krokos)

By Mike Krokos

Father James Brockmeier didn’t have to look far to find a symbol of hope in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis to open the 2025 Holy Year to mark the Jubilee, whose theme is “Pilgrims of Hope.”

During a prayer service on Dec. 29 at the Archbishop Edward T. O’Meara Catholic Center in Indianapolis to open the jubilee year, the rector of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral explained the significance of the cross chosen for the event—the cross that soon thereafter led a procession across Meridian Street to the cathedral, where Father Brockmeier celebrated a Mass marking the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

“It is the cross that led the eucharistic procession through the streets of Indianapolis [during the National Eucharistic Congress],” he explained of the cross that will reside in the cathedral during the jubilee year announced by Pope Francis. “That is why it is our cross of hope, reminding us to be pilgrims of hope, reminding us to be people who bring our Lord in the Eucharist out into the world.”

About 75 people attended the prayer service and took part in a procession, which originally was scheduled to go from the Catholic Center to the nearby Xavier Building on its campus, then to the cathedral. A steady rain led to a change of plans and shortened the procession’s route.

The prayer service also included a Gospel reading and a reading of a portion of “Spes non confundit” (“Hope does not disappoint,” Rom 5:5), the bull of indiction written by Pope Francis for the jubilee year:

“In the spirit of hope, the Apostle Paul addressed these words of encouragement to the Christian community of Rome. Hope is also the central message of the coming jubilee that, in accordance with an ancient tradition, the pope proclaims every 25 years. My thoughts turn to all those pilgrims of hope who will travel to Rome in order to experience the Holy Year and to all those others who, though unable to visit the City of the Apostles Peter and Paul, will celebrate it in their local churches. For everyone, may the jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ [Jn 10:7-9] of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope’ [1 Tm 1:1],” Father Brockmeier read.

He continued, “Everyone knows what it is to hope. In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring. Even so, uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt. Often, we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness. For all of us, may the jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope” (“Spes non confundit,” #1).

‘The cross of Christ is the way of hope’

In his homily during the Dec. 29 liturgy attended by approximately 200 people, Father Brockmeier told those gathered that all in the archdiocese are invited to visit the cathedral during the jubilee year to “pray before this cross of hope.”

During the National Eucharistic Congress, “tens of thousands of Catholics processed behind our Lord in the procession on the streets of Indianapolis,” he said. “Like that day, like today, we are invited to be pilgrims, following after our Lord, with our Lord, and his cross.

“The cross is a central symbol for this year of hope, because the cross of Christ is the way of hope,” Father Brockmeier added.

On the feast of the Holy Family, the cathedral rector encouraged those in attendance to love their family as “Christ loves us.”

“During this year, may we dedicate ourselves to following behind the cross of Christ that is our hope,” Father Brockmeier said. “May we never tire of pouring ourselves out as he did in love so that we, followers of the cross of Christ, may be hope in our world.”

The Church’s jubilee tradition

A jubilee or holy year is a special year in the life of the Church currently celebrated every 25 years. The most recent ordinary jubilee was in 2000, with Pope Francis calling for an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015-16. (Related: Jubilee Year offers several opportunities for plenary indulgences)

Jubilee years have been held on regular intervals in the Catholic Church since 1300, but they trace their roots to the Jewish tradition of marking a jubilee year every 50 years.

According to the Vatican website for the jubilee, these years in Jewish history were “intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.”

On Dec. 24, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican to launch the holy year. Coinciding with other diocesan celebrations on Dec. 29, Cardinal Baldo Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, opened the Holy Door at St. John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral.

Holy Doors were also opened at Rome’s other two major basilicas, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls, on Jan. 1 and on Jan. 5, respectively. Pope Francis also opened a Holy Door on Dec. 26 at Rome’s Rebibbia prison, which Vatican officials said was a papal first. Unlike the practice in the Year of Mercy, diocesan cathedrals will not designate their own holy doors.

More than 30 million pilgrims are expected in Rome during the course of the jubilee year, with many of them seeking a special indulgence offered in the Holy Year. However, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, the jubilee indulgence may be obtained in Catholics’ local dioceses by visiting cathedrals or other churches or sacred places designated by the local bishop.

Three Jubilee of Hope pilgrimage sites have been established in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis (see related story):

• SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral, 1347 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis.
• The Shrine of St. Mother Theodore Guérin and the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 1 Sisters of Providence Road, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, St. Mary of the Woods.
• The Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einsiedeln at Saint Meinrad Archabbey, 200 Hill Dr., St. Meinrad.

The Holy Year will end at St. Peter’s on Jan. 6, 2026, with diocesan celebrations ending on Dec. 28, 2025.

Focusing on the message of hope

Victor Creed, who is participating in SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish’s Order of Christian Initiation for Adults in hopes of being received into the Church at the Easter Vigil, said attending the Dec. 29 prayer service, taking part in the procession and attending Mass were all helpful as he continues on his journey of faith. He especially appreciates how the jubilee year focuses on hope.

“We are in a very detrimental time for people all around—mentally, emotionally, worldly—and I think focusing on the message of hope spiritually and hope throughout the world is a very touching message,” he said.

Cathedral parishioner Pat Maher said the message of hope in this jubilee also resonated with him.

“I think right now we need more hope than any time in history. It’s amazing that it’s starting now,” he said.

Maher said each year he and his family try to choose a word to focus on. Last year, his word was “chaos, because everything just seemed to be in chaos. That’s the way the world was before it began. God gives us that order that we need, so we need to avoid the chaos.

“I’m trying to decide [among three words] for this year, either ‘hope,’ ‘mercy’ or ‘truth.’ … Things keep coming up about those, but hope is leading the way right now.”
 

(OSV News contributed to this story.) †