Pope declares 2025 Holy Year – DW – 05/10/2024

Pope Francis used the Feast of the Ascension on Thursday to preside over the reading of a papal bull in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, declaring 2025 a Holy Year for Catholics around the world.

The event, which takes place every 25 years, will begin on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2024; and will continue until Epiphany, January 6, 2026.

What the Pope said

In the official decree, Francis proclaimed that the theme of the celebration would be “hope” and called on rich nations to forgive the debts owed to them by poorer ones, suggesting that they “recognize the gravity of so many of their past decisions and to determine to forgive the debts of countries which will never be able to pay them. »

He also pointed out “the ecological debt linked to trade imbalances having effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods”.

“Hope,” the pontiff said at a vigil after the official reading, “is necessary for God’s creation – gravely damaged and disfigured by human selfishness. Hope is necessary for the peoples and nations who look to the future with anxiety and fear.

The Holy Year tradition, inaugurated by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300, begins when the pope opens the holy door of St. Peter’s Basilica and invites pilgrims to visit the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul. The Jubilee involves indulgences for the forgiveness of sins and requires pilgrims to visit four of the city’s main cathedrals (St. Peter, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls).

Although Francis declared an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2016, the last major Holy Year, the Great Jubilee, occurred in 2000, in which Pope John Paul II led the Roman Catholic Church into the third millennium.

Rome needs a miracle

Nearly 25 million pilgrims attended the 2000 Jubilee. Organizers this time expect the number to be between 30 and 32 million.

Although the massive volume of additional tourists will be a boon for the Church and the city, many express concern about the capacity for all to be accommodated by Rome’s overwhelmed and outdated infrastructure.

Notoriously congested, the city is currently a massive 24-hour construction site – with major infrastructure projects around St. Peter’s but also along the Tiber, central boulevards and squares – all crippling traffic.

Rome is expected to receive some 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in public funds (1.3 billion euros in special Jubilee funds and 3 billion euros in public and other post-pandemic funds from the EU) to complete work to modernize roads, public transport, metro and telecommunications systems.

All of these projects, particularly those involving underground works, are made extremely difficult due to the need to protect the city’s rich archaeological heritage.

Currently, only two of the city’s 231 projects have been completed, but Mayor Roberto Gualtieri is confident that “essential projects” can be completed before the pilgrims arrive. Gualtieri said the collapse of Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government in 2022 had hampered their start, but added: “We have recovered a lot from the initial delay.”

“In a beautiful city, we live better,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, charged by Pope Francis with coordinating planning for the Holy Year at the Vatican.

“Rome will become an even more beautiful city, because it will be ever more at the service of its inhabitants, the pilgrims and the tourists who come,” Fisichella said.

js/ko (AFP, AP)