2025 Jubilee

The 2025 Jubilee is a jubilee in the Catholic Church celebrated in the year 2025, announced by Pope John Paul II at the end of the 2000 Great Jubilee. This jubilee was preceded by the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy of 2015–2016. The papal bull proclaiming the Jubilee is "Spes non confundit" (Latin for "Hope does not disappoint").
It runs from Christmas Eve (24 December) 2024 to Epiphany (6 January) 2026.
At the close of the 2000 Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II spoke to the children of the world, noting that the children and young people of that time would be "the leading players at the next Jubilee in 2025".
On 26 December 2021, Pope Francis entrusted the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization with the task of making preparations for the Jubilee, since he considered it fundamental for the strengthening of Catholicism.
On 3 January 2022, at a meeting held in Rome, it was determined that the motto of the event would be "Pilgrims of Hope". On 22 February the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization called a competition to design the official logo of the 2025 Jubilee, with the main prompt being that the participants base their submissions on the motto. The Pontifical Council would choose the design which communicated the message the best. The competition was open until 20 May, and at the end of June 2022, the official logo was presented.
The papal bull of convocation, named Spes non confundit, took place 9 May 2024, coinciding with the Solemnity of the Ascension. It explains the necessary indications for the celebration of the Jubilee, in which several points were highlighted, among which the following stand out:
On 28 October, the Vatican launched an anime-influenced mascot named "Luce" (Italian for "light") for the 2025 Jubilee, intending to engage a younger audience.
Opening and closing of the Holy Doors of the four major papal basilicas in Rome, normally sealed with mortar and cement, signal the beginning and end of the jubilee:
A fifth door, located at the Roman prison in Rebibbia, was opened on 26 December 2024. The act is intended to serve as a symbol "inviting all prisoners to look to the future with hope and a renewed sense of confidence". This was the first time a prison door has been opened to mark the commencement of a jubilee.
On 9 January 2025, archbishop Santo Marcianò of the Military Ordinariate of Italy designated Italian naval ship Amerigo Vespucci as a 2025 Jubilee church and site “for sacred pilgrimages and for pious visits among its missions at sea.”
The jubilee began on Christmas Eve (24 December) 2024, with Francis knocking on the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican from his wheelchair. The door was swung open and Francis rolled through the doorway as the basilica's Christmas Eve Mass began.
During the first two weeks of the jubilee, more than 545,000 pilgrims passed through the Holy Door of the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In the first month of the jubilee, this number exceeded 1.3 milllion pilgrims.
The year includes a number of subsidiary thematic jubilees: for example, the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture was held between 15 and 18 February, the Jubilee of the Missionaries of Mercy is from 28 to 30 March, and the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents and the Elderly takes place from 30 May to 1 June. During the Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, among others, producer Tim Burton, actress Monica Bellucci, designer Dante Ferretti, scenarist Abel Ferrara, writers Nadia Terranova and Luca Doninelli, and singers Gigi D'Alessio and Enrico Ruggeri registered for participation. It started with a general audience in St. Peter's Square, following international meeting "Sharing Hope – Horizons of Cultural Heritage" in Vatican Museums. The next day was opening of the Window Gallery - Conciliazione 5, located in Via della Conciliazione, and presentation of the "Yan Pei-Ming" project by Roman prisoners.
In December 2024, various viral posts on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, and Facebook claimed falsely that the pope would be opening "spiritual portals" or "sacred portals" in a "never-before-performed" ritual. Some posts also claimed falsely that the ritual included opening a "tomb of Lucifer" under the Vatican. The claim of a new ritual appeared to stem from a New York Post article with a misleading title referring to the opening of the additional Rebibbia prison door. It is unclear where the Tomb of Lucifer claim originated; however, Bible scholar Daniel McClellan suggested that a tomb in the Vatican Necropolis labeled as the "Tomb of Lucifer" may have begun the rumor, and explained that in pre-Constantinian times when the tomb was constructed the name Lucifer did not have Satanic connotations, with contemporary Christians even having Lucifer as their personal name.