VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis has asked the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation to take charge of the preparations for the Holy Year 2025.
In a brief note on December 26, the Vatican press office said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the pontifical council, has already had meetings with officials of the Vatican Secretariat of State and with the offices that will be involved in funding Holy Year activities: the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See and the Secretariat for the Economy.
A holy year or jubilee is a time of pilgrimage, prayer, repentance and acts of mercy, based on the Old Testament tradition of a jubilee year of rest, forgiveness and renewal.
Holy years also are a time when Catholics visit designated churches and shrines, recite special prayers, go to confession and receive Communion to receive a plenary indulgence, which is a remission of the temporal punishment due for one’s sins.
Pope Francis, seeing a need to emphasise God’s mercy and to encourage Catholics to return to the sacrament of reconciliation, declared an extraordinary Year of Mercy, which ran from 2015 to 2016.
For the Year of Mercy, and traditionally for holy years, the celebrations begin with the pope opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve and ends with the sealing of the door one year later.
