Join us for the Opening the Jubilee Year

The Holy Father will solemnly open the Jubilee Year 2025 in St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve. Meanwhile, throughout the world, diocesan bishops will inaugurate the Holy Year in their Cathedrals on Sunday 29th December. I will do this at the 12 noon Mass that day in Portsmouth. Do come and join us for this. Meanwhile, here are a few notes about the ceremony.

The solemn opening of the Jubilee Year takes place at a Mass at which the diocesan bishop presides in the cathedral church, mother of all the churches of the diocese. The particular sign of the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year is the pilgrimage of the diocesan Church and the processional entrance behind the cross into the cathedral. The procession is expressed in three moments: (1) a collectio (“gathering”) in a nearby suitable place; (2) the pilgrimage; and (3) the entrance into the cathedral.

For the collectio an antiphon or opening chant, the greeting, the invitation to bless and praise God, an exhortation, the prayer, the proclamation of a gospel passage and the reading of some sections from the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee Year will take place.

Then the pilgrimage moves towards the cathedral church. This is the sign of the journey of hope of the pilgrim people behind the cross of Christ. The cross which opens the pilgrimage should therefore be one of significance for the diocesan Church in an historical-artistic sense, or because of the devotion of the people. It should be duly decorated and is to be placed near the altar in the sanctuary where it remains for the entire Jubilee Year for the veneration of the faithful. To accompany the pilgrimage, the so-called psalms of pilgrimage and of entrance to the temple are particularly suitable. In addition, given its ancient processional usage, the litany of the saints could be sung.

(3) Finally, the entrance of the people of God into the cathedral is made through the principal door, sign of Christ (cf. Jn 10:9). On the threshold the bishop lifts up the cross, faces the people and, with an acclamation invites them to venerate it.  Having crossed the threshold, the bishop makes his way with the ministers towards the baptismal font where he leads the rite of the memorial of Baptism while the faithful assemble in the nave facing the font. The bishop then goes in procession with the ministers towards the altar; the faithful take their places. The sprinkling with water is a living remembrance of Baptism which is the gate of entry in the journey of sacramental initiation and into the Church. The celebration of the Mass constitutes the high point of the Rite of Opening of the Jubilee Year.

You can continue to read this issue in full here.