How to Obtain a Plenary Indulgence During the 2025 Jubilee

Year of the Jubilee 2025

2025 JUBILEE YEAR PRAYERS 4p WEB SMC 8.5 x 11 R1R 20250110

2025 JUBILEE YEAR PRAYERS 4p WEB SMC A4 R1R 20250110

2025 JUBILEE YEAR PRAYERS WEB SMC 11 x 17 R1R 20250110

2025 JUBILEE YEAR PRAYERS WEB SMC A3 R1R 20250110

The Holy Father has announced that 2025 will be a Jubilee Year, something which happens every 25 years. The theme for Jubilee 2025 is “Pilgrims of Hope,” and it will be a year of hope for a world suffering the impacts of war, the ongoing effects of COVID-19 pandemic, and the climate crisis.
Jubilees have biblical roots, as the Mosaic era established jubilee years to be held every 50 years for the freeing of slaves and forgiveness of debts as manifestations of God’s mercy.
The practice was reestablished in 1300 by Pope Boniface VIII, who, inspired by his predecessor Pope Celestine V’s “Jubilee” in L’Aquila six years prior, issued a bull of indulgence proclaiming that Christians who confessed their sins, received the Eucharist, and made a pilgrimage to Rome could receive a plenary indulgence — a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.
The Holy Door is one of the essential parts of a jubilee year. The special doors, found at St. Peter’s Basilica and Rome’s three other papal basilicas, are sealed from the inside and only opened to walk through during the holy year.
The Jubilee Year will run from the opening of the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, on Tuesday 24 December 2024 to the Feast of Epiphany 2026. The great tradition of opening the Holy Door will begin when Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on December 24, 2024. Other holy doors will be opened at the Rome basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls. Archbishop Bernard is set to celebrate Mass for the Solemn Opening of the Year, at St Chad’s Cathedral on Sunday 29 December 2024.
Pope Francis stated in his February 2022 letter announcing the Jubilee 2025: “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…”
The goal of the Jubilee “is to give an experience of the mercy and love of God,” the Vatican’s chief Jubilee organizer, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, told EWTN News in May. “I hope that all pilgrims coming to Rome or celebrating the Jubilee in their own local Church can have this kind of experience:
God loves me.”

2025 Jubilee year 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 forever.
Amen

Prayers of the Faithful in Preparation for Jubilee 2025
Prayer of Intercession
“O Father, in Your mercy, hear Your children’s pleas. As we prepare for the Jubilee of 2025, renew our faith, increase the virtues of hope and charity in us, and help us be witnesses of Your love in the world.”
Prayer of Praise
“We praise You, Lord, for Your infinite goodness. In the upcoming Jubilee, open our eyes to the beauty of Your creation so that our hearts may rejoice in the wonder and greatness of Your works.”

Prayer of Thanksgiving
“We thank You, O God, for every blessing and for all the gifts we have received. As we prepare for the Jubilee, teach us to recognize Your hand in every moment of our lives and to welcome each day as a gift of Your mercy and love.”
Prayer of Petition
“Lord, source of all wisdom, guide us during this Year of Prayer as we prepare to celebrate the upcoming Jubilee. Open our hearts and enlighten our minds so that we may understand and fully experience the gifts of mercy and forgiveness.”

Stepping Out to Act
Lord of all life, look with compassion on your people, as we wait and watch in hope, as we yearn and long for change.
Timeless and ever-living God, grant us patience and perseverance, for we cannot always see the end.
Now is the time, now is the hour, to act with generosity, wisdom and understanding.
May we set our hearts towards your love, and our minds towards your will, as we step out with courage along the paths of peace, and the ways of justice. We ask this in the name of your Son, our brother Jesus Christ,
Amen.

Symphony Of Prayer and Praise: A Prayer for the Year of Prayer
God of blessings, in this year ahead, give us a spirit of listening, of openness to your word and longing for your kingdom.
As we journey toward the Jubilee, a time of new beginnings, we pray for help and strength, to heal our relationships with each other and all creation. Sing your song of love over us, renewing our faith and courage, so we may join our voices together, discovering new harmonies of hope, new melodies of reconciliation Attentive to the Spirit, and awake to the needs of the world, may we seek your life-giving presence, as we join as one global family, in a great symphony of prayer and praise.
Amen.

Trumpets Herald Change
Open our lives to the cry of the trumpet sounding the birth of the new. Open our minds to the blast of the trumpet calling all slaves to break free. Open our hands to take hold of the music breaking the shackles that bind. Open our hearts to the Jubilee promise leading our actions and dreams. In the holiness of the moment be with us. In the stillness of the dance hold my hand.
Prayer: Linda Jones/CAFOD

How to Obtain a Plenary Indulgence During the 2025 Jubilee
A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.
The Vatican issued a decree on Monday outlining the many ways that Catholics can obtain a plenary indulgence during the 2025 Jubilee Year.
The decree signed on May 13 by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the new head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, provides Catholics with the opportunity to gain indulgences by making pilgrimages, prayerful visits to specific churches, or by practicing works of mercy during the holy year.
A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.
The indulgence applies to sins already forgiven. A plenary indulgence cleanses the soul as if the person had just been baptized. Plenary indulgences obtained during the Jubilee Year can also be applied to souls in purgatory with the possibility of obtaining two plenary indulgences for the deceased in one day, according to the Apostolic Penitentiary.
To obtain an indulgence, the usual conditions of detachment from all sin, sacramental confession, holy Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope must be met. (See end of article for more on this.)
Here are some of the many ways one can obtain indulgences during the 2025 Jubilee Year:

In order to obtain any of the plenary indulgences listed above, the following conditions must be fulfilled

1. Detachment from all sin, even venial.
2. Sacramental confession, holy Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope. These three conditions can be fulfilled a few days before or after performing the works to gain the indulgence, but it is appropriate that Communion and the prayer take place on the same day that the work is completed.
A single sacramental confession is sufficient for several plenary indulgences, but frequent sacramental confession is encouraged in order to obtain the grace of deeper conversion and purity of heart.
For each plenary indulgence that is sought, however, a separate holy Communion and a separate prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father are required.
The prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father is left up to the choice of the individual, but an Our Father and Hail Mary are suggested.

Make a Pilgrimage to Rome
Catholics who make a pilgrimage to Rome during the 2025 Jubilee Year can obtain a plenary indulgence by visiting at least one of the four major papal basilicas: St. Peter’s Basilica, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, or St. Paul Outside the Walls.
In addition, an indulgence can be obtained by spending time in prayer in several other churches in Rome:
Rome’s Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem
Basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls
Basilica of St. Sebastian
Sanctuary of Divine Love (the “Divino Amore”)
Church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia
Church of St. Paul at Tre Fontane (the site of St. Paul’s martyrdom)
The Roman Catacombs
The Apostolic Penitentiary also grants a plenary indulgences specifically for making pilgrimage to churches in Rome connected to great female saints:
Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (tomb of St. Catherine of Siena)
St. Brigid at Campo de’ Fiori (St. Brigid of Sweden)
Santa Maria della Vittoria (St. Teresa of Ávila)
Trinità dei Monti (St. Thérèse of Liseux)
Basilica of St. Cecilia in Trastevere (St. Cecilia)
Basilica of Sant’Augustino in Campo Marzio (St. Monica)

Perform Works of Mercy
The jubilee year is a time when Catholics are especially encouraged to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Apostolic Penitentiary lists visiting prisoners, spending time with lonely elderly people, aiding the sick or disabled, and helping those who are in need as instances to obtain an indulgence. Practicing the works of mercy, it says, is “in a sense making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them.”
Indulgences for works of mercy can be received multiple times throughout the jubilee year, even daily, according to the decree. If the indulgence is being applied to the deceased, two plenary indulgences can be obtained on the same day.
The decree says: “Despite the rule that only one plenary indulgence can be obtained per day, the faithful who have carried out an act of charity on behalf of the souls in purgatory, if they receive holy Communion a second time that day, can obtain the plenary indulgence twice on the same day, applicable only to the deceased.”
Fast from social media, defend life, volunteer
Acts of penance can also obtain a plenary indulgence. The Vatican lists several options, including:
Abstaining for at least one day a week from “futile distractions,” such as social media or television
Fasting
Donating “a proportionate sum of money to the poor”
Supporting religious or social works, especially in the defense of life in all phases
Offering support to migrants, the elderly, the poor, young people in difficulty, and abandoned children