by Moira Cullings
moira.cullings@theleaven.org
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — “Everybody needs a moment to pause and reconsider what’s important and to lay down our burdens,” said Michael Podrebarac, consultant for the archdiocesan office for liturgy and sacramental life.
With Jubilee Year 2025 underway, that moment for Catholics is now.
Every 25 years, the Catholic Church celebrates a Jubilee Year, also known as a Holy Year, when Catholics have the opportunity to receive special graces.
To kick off Jubilee Year 2025 in northeast Kansas, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann opened the Holy Door to the Cathedral of St. Peter in Kansas City, Kansas, on Dec. 29 before celebrating Mass.
Guided by the theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” archdiocesan leaders believe this Jubilee Year will provide multiple opportunities for Catholics to grow in faith and service to others.
“I am hopeful that the virtue of hope and of being able to trust God will increase among all of us,” said Podrebarac, “in both our hearts and in very practical ways during the next year.”
Stepping forward in faith
Pope Francis inaugurated the Jubilee Year on Dec. 24, 2024, when he opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
Since most people can’t make a pilgrimage to Rome, local bishops are able to designate sites in their own dioceses, typically their cathedral, as pilgrimage destinations.
At the Cathedral of St. Peter, the main entrance steps are currently under renovation, so the Holy Door opened by Archbishop Naumann leads to its adoration chapel, where daily Mass is celebrated. The chapel is also a shrine to St. Maria Soledad.
Once the main entrance project is completed, said the archbishop, the Holy Door will be relocated there.
Archbishop Naumann said the Holy Door is “a physical symbol of interior desire to pass from the world into the presence of God.”
“Passing through the Holy Door is intended to be an act of both faith and courage,” he said, one where we leave behind the desires of this world “to enter into the new life of grace, mercy, reconciliation and abundance that’s found in Our Lord’s kingdom.”
The archbishop encouraged Catholics to make a pilgrimage to the cathedral and to deepen their relationship with Jesus this year.
“Friendship and communion with Jesus have given his disciples hope for 2,000 years,” he said, “even through times of adversity, illness, deaths of loved ones, persecutions, imprisonments and even martyrdom.
“Deeper friendship with Jesus must be the burning desire of all of our hearts.”
Abundance of mercy
Making a pilgrimage to the cathedral and passing through its Holy Door is one of the ways Catholics can receive plenary indulgences this Jubilee Year.
Indulgences are significant, said Podrebarac, because even though Jesus forgives sins in the sacrament of reconciliation, temporal punishment still exists.
“A person can be forgiven fully,” he explained, “but that doesn’t mean they’re fully purified from the effects of that sin.
“An indulgence is a way for that purification to take place.”
Unique to Jubilee Year 2025, individuals can receive two plenary indulgences per day — one for themselves and one for someone who is deceased.
“The other thing that’s interesting,” said Podrebarac, “is usually an indulgence is gained through a prescribed set of prayers, or a pilgrimage to a holy place, or some kind of devotional or sacred exercise.”
Although that’s still the case this year, Pope Francis added participation in works of mercy as an additional way to receive an indulgence.
“To me, that’s a beautiful thing in that it underscores the fact that all of our actions done in the name of love, in the name of Jesus, are forms of prayer,” said Podrebarac.
Deacon Dana Nearmyer, director of evangelization for the archdiocese, believes it’s an exciting opportunity for the local church.
“Pope Francis is offering Jubilee indulgences in conjunction with calling us to be Jesus’ hands and feet,” he said, “and to flood our community with his sacred heart in the areas of mercy, justice and advocacy.
“These include work in foster care, pro-life activities, visits to the infirm and elderly and more works that Christ directed.”
Information on how to receive plenary indulgences, including for those who are homebound and unable to make a pilgrimage, can be found online at: archkck.org/jubilee/#info.
Help for the hurting
The Jubilee Year is “the perfect capstone” to the three-year Eucharistic Revival taking place in the United States, said Archbishop Naumann.
In its final Year of Mission, the revival is encouraging Catholics to participate in the Walk with One initiative by accompanying an individual through prayer and friendship.
The archbishop offers a further explanation online at: archkck.org/walk-with-one.
The overlap of the Jubilee Year and Walk with One is “an opportunity for us to actively participate in sharing hope as we walk alongside another person with an intention to reflect Christ’s love, offering support and encouragement,” said Emily Lopez, director of adult evangelization for the archdiocese.
Catholics are encouraged to “fill up our spiritual tanks, and then to go to the hurting, the marginalized, the peripheries with good news,” said Deacon Nearmyer.
“But most Catholics are uncomfortable sharing their faith,” he said, “and most feel unprepared.”
Tips and tools are offered through a free Evangelization 101 video series consisting of five six-minute videos and supplemental materials, available online at: archkck.org/oe/evangelization-101.
When it comes to reaching out to those in need, said Deacon Nearmyer, the archdiocese has a plethora of ministries, which were highlighted during the Mercy and Justice Summit held at Savior Pastoral Center in Kansas City, Kansas, this past September.
Resources that resulted from the summit are available online at: archkck.org/mercy-justice-summit.
Messengers of hope
“Our homes, parishes, communities and world are all in desperate need of hope,” said Lopez. “Not the hope we put in 401(k) funds or long-term-care insurance, but the hope that reflects a trust in God’s promise of eternal life.”
The archdiocese is optimistic this Jubilee Year will offer that and more.
“We believe the impact of a Jubilee Year spent growing in trust and hope will strengthen the faith lives of local Catholics,” said Lopez, “renewing their families, parishes and communities.”
Archbishop Naumann prayed that the Jubilee Year would be a time of grace and renewed faith for his flock.
“May we know the peace, hope and joy that God brought into the world by revealing himself in Jesus — the Word made flesh,” he said. “May we be pilgrims of hope, always prepared to give a reason for our hope and joy.”
To learn more, visit the website at: archkck.org/jubilee.
Journey to the Sacred Heart
On Oct. 24, 2024, Pope Francis issued the encyclical “Dilexit Nos: On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”
The archdiocesan evangelization office encourages all Catholics, and married couples together, to read the encyclical.
With that in mind, Archbishop Naumann designated all churches consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as pilgrimage sites, in addition to the Cathedral of St. Peter, in Jubilee Year 2025.
“Members of the archdiocese can make spiritual and devotional visits to any of these churches and receive similar indulgences under the same conditions as making a pilgrimage to the cathedral,” said Archbishop Naumann.
See the decree below for more details.
Decree designating jubilee sites
Whereas, the Holy Father Pope Francis has decreed that the Holy Door of the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican will be opened on Tues., Dec. 24, 2024, to inaugurate the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope” (“Spes non confundit,” 6);
Whereas, the Holy Father Pope Francis has further decreed that each diocesan bishop throughout the church is to solemnly open the Jubilee Year in the local church with the celebration of Holy Mass in the cathedral on Sun., Dec. 29, 2024 (ibid.);
Whereas, the Holy Father Pope Francis, in his desire to offer the Jubilee Indulgence so that the faithful may experience “the unlimited nature of God’s mercy,” (“Spes non confundit,” 23) has directed the Apostolic Penitentiary to set forth norms for obtaining the Jubilee Indulgence;
Whereas, within those norms, it is stated that the diocesan bishop may establish sacred Jubilee sites within his jurisdiction to which the faithful can make pilgrimage or a pious visit so to experience the joys of this Jubilee (Decree on the Granting of the Indulgence During the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025);
Whereas, on Oct. 24, 2024, the Holy Father Pope Francis issued a new encyclical, “Dilexit Nos,” in which the Holy Father reflects on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus;
Whereas, in my consideration for the good of souls, the celebration of the Jubilee Year, and my desire for all the faithful of the archdiocese to come to know the infinite love of the Lord expressed in the Most Sacred Heart;
I, the undersigned, archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas, do hereby decree that, effective on Dec. 29, 2024, and for the period of the Jubilee Year, along with the Cathedral of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles in Kansas City, Kansas, all churches within the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas under the patronage of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, namely,
• Sacred Heart in Baileyville
• Sacred Heart in Emporia
• Sacred Heart (part of Our Lady of Unity) in Kansas City, Kansas
• Sacred Heart (part of Sacred Heart-St. Casimir) in Leavenworth, Kansas
• Sacred Heart in Mound City
• Sacred Heart in Ottawa
• Sacred Heart in Paxico
• Sacred Heart in Sabetha
• Sacred Heart of Jesus in Shawnee
• Sacred Heart in Tonganoxie
• Sacred Heart (part of Sacred Heart-St. Joseph) in Topeka
• Sacred Heart (part of Divine Mercy) in Gardner
be designated as sacred Jubilee sites to which the faithful can make pilgrimage or a pious visit during this Ordinary Jubilee of 2025. Upon making such pilgrimage or pious visit to these sites, along with the usual conditions, i.e., being “moved by a spirit of charity and . . . purified through the sacrament of penance and refreshed by holy Communion, having prayed for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff (Decree on the Granting of the Indulgence During the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025), may obtain a plenary indulgence for oneself or a soul in purgatory.
Given at the chancery in Kansas City, Kansas, on this twenty-third cay of December 2024.
Most Reverend Joseph F. Naumann, D.D.
Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas
Rev. John Riley
Vicar General, Chancellor
The jubilee prayer
Father in heaven, may the faith you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.
May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven.
May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth.
To you our God, eternally blessed, be glory and praise for ever.
Amen.
Pope Francis
