Pope Francis has declared 2025 a Jubilee Year in the Universal Church, a prayerful celebration that will begin in the Diocese of Allentown with a special Mass at 4:15 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 28, at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, Allentown.
Attending the opening Mass is a way for the faithful of the Diocese to join in solidarity with Catholics around the world: Masses to inaugurate the Jubilee Year will be celebrated on the same weekend in every Cathedral across the globe.
The opening Mass will begin with a procession featuring the Diocese’s most historic crucifix – which was positioned behind the Cathedral’s Tabernacle until the most recent renovation. Recently refurbished, the stunning crucifix features reliefs of the Four Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – and its gold color is set off by sections of magenta and accents of green.
For the procession, all parishes and schools have been invited to select four representatives to carry a banner with their parish or school’s name and a special emblem featuring the historic crucifix and the Papal coat of arms.
“We pray that this Jubilee Year of Hope will serve as a spiritual salve for the scars of division in our world,” said Bishop Alfred Schlert, who will be the main celebrant of the opening Mass in Allentown. “May the People of God see a future of great promise and of great hope,” he said.
The Catholic Church celebrates a Jubilee every 25 years (and occasionally more often, such as with the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy declared by the Pope for 2016). This Jubilee will mark the 2,025th anniversary of the Incarnation of Our Lord, when God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.
Pope Francis has said he selected hope as the theme because the world is suffering the ongoing effects of war, the lingering effects of Covid, and a climate crisis. Bishop Schlert commented recently on the themes of this and the previous Jubilee Years: “Hope and mercy, mercy and hope. Those two things go together,” he said. “One begets the other.”
In Rome, the Pope will mark the great tradition of a Jubilee Year by opening the main doors of St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve. “The time has come for a new Jubilee,” Pope Francis said, “when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in the hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ.”
The opening Mass will be livestreamed to the Diocese of Allentown Facebook page.
By Paul Wirth
