Worldwide Jubilee

By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Hymns, prayers and pageantry marked the opening of Jubilee 2025 as the Archdiocese of Miami joined the worldwide Church in a year of spiritual renewal.

Defying a drizzly, overcast Saturday afternoon, worshipers overflowed the 1,000-seat St. Mary Cathedral on Jan. 28, even standing along the rear wall. Some voiced simple but eloquent reasons for coming.

“This is a historic occasion, and I want be part of it,” said William Josepha of the Church of the Little Flower, Coral Gables, who brought his wife and daughter. “It’s an opportunity to draw closer to God and grow in faith.”

Father Richard Vigoa, director of worship for the Archdiocese of Miami, heartily agreed.

“It’s an invitation for everyone to rediscover the beauty of their faith and their relationship with God,” said Father Vigoa, who helped plan the Jubilee Mass. “It’s also a time to celebrate our shared faith and to live out our mission of hope, healing and love.”

Pope Francis launched the Jubilee Year on Christmas Eve when he opened the special Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica. He also sounded the theme, “Pilgrims in Hope.”

“This is the season of hope in which we are invited to rediscover the joy of meeting the Lord,” the Holy Father said. “The Jubilee calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us to the transformation of our world, so that this year may truly become a time of jubilation.”

The Mass at St. Mary’s showed appropriate splendor for the occasion. Archbishop Thomas Wenski read the Jubilee proclamation in the church foyer, followed by a procession of priests and visiting bishops. Eighteen sword-bearing Knights of Columbus formed an honor guard.

Providing music was the archdiocese’s 40-voice Pontifical Choir. They sang not only liturgical music like the Agnus Dei, but carols like The First Noel and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.

The choir also introduced the official Jubilee hymn:

Like a flame, my hope is burning

May my song arise to you

Source of life that has no ending

On life’s path I trust in you

For those who couldn't make it to the cathedral, the archdiocese livestreamed the event via YouTube. But Junie Cornielle, a Eucharistic minister at Visitation Church in Miami, said she wouldn’t have missed being there.

“We need more peace in this country,” said Cornielle, who also took part in the pope’s Year of Mercy in 2016. “Jubilee is a great hope, a spiritual hope, for me.”

The official Jubilee logo carries forth the theme as well. It shows four stylized human figures of various colors embracing a cross over rough waters. At the ocean floor, the cross ends with an anchor, another ancient symbol of the faith.

During the Dec. 28 Mass in Miami, Archbishop Wenski emphasized a social dimension, saying the Jubilee “calls each of us to spiritual renewal and to the transformation of the world by re-introducing hope to the world.”

In his homily, the archbishop scanned several social trends – suicide, abortion, addictions, falling birthrates – as symptoms of a loss of hope.

He held up the family – exemplified by Jesus, Mary and Joseph – as “a school of faith and of values … a secure and protected home for children to best grow in virtue.”

Yet even as they spread godly values in society, Catholics are merely passing through en route to heaven, Archbishop Wenski stressed. As such, they need to shed spiritual burdens through confession and obtaining indulgences at Jubilee Year churches.

“Pilgrims should travel light, not carrying any extra baggage,” he said.

The Jubilee is timed for the 2,025th anniversary of the traditional date the incarnation of God through Jesus’ birth. The Church is using the date to call the faithful to visit designated holy sites to confess sins, obtain plenary indulgences, and model Jesus’ presence to the world.

A plenary indulgence “cleanses the soul as if the person had just been baptized,” according to the 32-page program book handed out on Dec. 28. It also removes “temporal punishment,” the spiritual suffering caused by sins, according to the Church.

An indulgence can “keep someone from falling deeper into sin,” according to Father Agustin Estrada, priest-secretary for Archbishop Thomas Wenski. “The person can start healing.”

In Rome, pilgrims are called to visit St. Peter’s, plus the basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls.

For South Floridians who can't make it to Rome, five sites have been designated as special places of prayer for the Jubilee: 

• St. Mary Cathedral, 7525 NW Second Ave., Miami.  
  
  
• The National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity, 3609 South Miami Ave., Coconut Grove.  
  
  
• Our Lady of Schoenstatt Shrine, 22800 SW 187th Ave., Homestead.
  
  
• St. Mary Star of the Sea Basilica, 1010 Windsor Lane, Key West. 
  
  
• Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, 11691 NW 25th Street, Doral. 
  
  
• St. Clement Church, 2875 N. Andrews Ave., Wilton Manors. 

Pilgrims who wish to organize group pilgrimages should coordinate with the Jubilee sites in advance.

In addition to church visits, pilgrims are asked to pray for the pope and take Holy Communion. They also should perform or donate to “acts of charity” such as supporting migrants or the elderly.

Also recommended is abstaining from “futile distractions,” such as TV or social media, for at least one day a week.

After the Mass, Benjamin Bera, 12, said he planned to use the Jubilee Year to grow in love for Jesus and to model the faith to others.

“I also want to become more generous and thoughtful,” added Benjamin, in his second year as an altar server at St. Mary. “And to make people happy.”

Father Vigoa voiced his own hopes for how the Jubilee would affect South Florida Catholics: drawing those who have been distant, inspiring those already active.

“I hope to see a community where parishioners are fervent in prayer, committed to the sacraments, and engaged in service to one another,” he said.

“I envision a Church that emerges from this holy year stronger, more united and focused on bringing the light of Christ to every part of our community.”