Dioceses across the world celebrate opening of Jubilee Year

Dioceses across the world celebrate opening of Jubilee Year

Vatican news

The opening of the Jubilee Year was marked on Sunday around the world with masses celebrated in cathedrals and co-cathedrals

By Lisa Zengarini

Bishops around the world celebrated the opening of the Jubilee Year 2025 on December 29 with masses in their cathedrals and co-cathedrals centered on hope, the central theme of the holy year that Pope Francis inaugurated the day before Christmas with the solemn opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter. . Peter’s Basilica.

Holy Land

In the Holy Land Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa presided over his diocese’s celebration mass at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. The celebration began with a procession that symbolized a collective journey toward renewal and hope.

In his sermon, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem noted that the continuing violence and suffering in the Holy Land have “imprisoned” all communities in their fears, preventing them “from having the courage to look at others with confidence and therefore with hope “.

Referring to the theme of the Jubilee, Cardinal Pizzaballa recognized that it is very difficult to speak of hope, “when everything around us speaks of war, violence, poverty and misery.” At the same time, he emphasized that “hope needs faith” and, as St. Paul teaches us, “also requires patience.” “Patience without hope is just resignation” and “hope without patience is just an illusion,” he said.

The Patriarch reminded the faithful that the Jubilee Year offers God the opportunity to forgive our sins and renew our hearts, allowing us to continue our journey with hope and joy.

London

The urgency of renewal in our world “marked by tragedy, conflict and cruelty” and for those for whom “the pilgrimage of life is hard and relentless” was also at the center of concerns. Cardinal Vincent Nichols» reflection during the opening mass which he presided at Westminster Cathedral in London. Jubilees, he said in the homily, “are opportunities for the Church to reset.” And this Holy Year invites us to deepen and renew the place of hope in our lives.

Cardinal Nichols noted that today’s Gospel reading, centered on the pilgrimage of the Holy Family to Jerusalem, constitutes a poignant metaphor for our journey in life.

UNITED STATES

These themes also resonated across the United States. the bishops opened the jubilee year in their dioceses.

In some dioceses, the opening rite preceded a procession of the faithful to or into the cathedral for mass. The procession was to include a Jubilee Cross, an important cross for the local church designated for a special liturgical role during the Jubilee year.

Ukraine

The opening of the Jubilee Year was also celebrated in several Catholic churches in Ukraine, against the backdrop of continued shelling and bombing of Ukrainian cities by Russia.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Greek Catholic Church, presided over the sFormal liturgy in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in kyiv. In his sermon, he reminded worshipers that “today the hope of Ukraine is Jesus Christ.” “Christian hope,” emphasized the Major Archbishop of kyiv-Halyč in a message published on the occasion of the Holy Year, “is the secret of the stability and invincibility of our people, which, in in the middle of war, knows how to defend freedom to the highest degree. at the cost of their own lives, dream of a better future and build a better world for their children today.

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