Opening Mass for the 2025 Jubilee Year: Pilgrims of Hope
During 2025, the Diocese of Youngstown will join the global Catholic Church in the celebration of a year of Jubilee with the theme Pilgrims of Hope.
All are invited to join Bishop David J. Bonnar as we initiate this year of celebration with an opening Mass at Saint Columba Cathedral, 4pm on Sunday, December 29, 2024.
The Mass will also be livestreamed at catholicecho.org/live/
A full schedule of annual events in 2025 will be available at that time. All are invited to join our diocesan pilgrimage to celebrations in all six counties of the Diocese of Youngstown.
Pope Francis explains why this year of Jubilee is necessary at this moment in history:
“We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us, and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision. The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope. This will indeed be the case if we are capable of recovering a sense of universal fraternity and refuse to turn a blind eye to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of our human dignity. Here I think in particular of the many refugees forced to abandon their native lands. May the voices of the poor be heard throughout this time of preparation for the Jubilee, which is meant to restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone. As the Bible teaches, ‘The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you; for your cattle also, and for the beasts that are in your land, all its yield shall be for food’ (Lev 25:6-7).
The spiritual dimension of the Jubilee, which calls for conversion, should also embrace these fundamental aspects of our life in society as part of a coherent whole. In the realization that all of us are pilgrims on this earth, which the Lord has charged us to till and keep (cf. Gen 2:15), may we never fail, in the course of our sojourn, to contemplate the beauty of creation and care for our common home. It is my hope that the coming Jubilee Year will be celebrated and experienced with this intention too. Growing numbers of men and women, including many young people and children, have come to realize that care for creation is an essential expression of our faith in God and our obedience to his will.”
-Pope Francis, 11 February 2022
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