January 8, 2025 at 10:08 a.m.
PILGRIMS OF HOPE
On a blustery, cold gray Sunday, the sounds of “The First Noel,” “We Three Kings” and “Gloria in Excelsis Deo” could be heard echoing through the streets of downtown Albany.
It was all part of a prayerful procession/pilgrimage, one filled with hope, that the faithful in the Diocese of Albany took part in on Jan. 5 to celebrate the opening of Jubilee Year 2025, which has the theme of “Pilgrims of Hope.”
The day started with a prayer service at Historic St. Mary’s on Capitol Hill, and was then followed by the half-mile prayerful procession/pilgrimage from St. Mary’s to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. As the procession began its way up Pine Street, it was led by an altar server with incense and the Jubilee Cross, carried by John Travis, Cathedral parishioner, usher, altar server and extraordinary minister of Holy Communion. As “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” was being sung, Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger led diocesan priests, religious sisters and the faithful of the Diocese to Eagle Street as the procession wound its way to the Cathedral. (Use this link to see the photo gallery: https://evangelist.org/photos/galleries/2025/jan/08/diocese-kicks-off-jubilee-year-2025/)
According to the Vatican, “The solemn opening of the Jubilee Year takes place at the celebration of the Eucharist at which the diocesan bishop presides in the cathedral church, mother of all the churches of the diocese. … The procession is expressed in three moments: — la collectio (‘gathering’) in a nearby church or other suitable place, the pilgrimage, (and) the entrance into the cathedral.”
The cross used in the procession should be “one of significance for the diocesan Church in the historical-artistic sense, or because of the devotion of the people. … It is placed near the altar in the sanctuary where it remains for the entire Jubilee Year for the veneration of the faithful.”
On the steps of the Cathedral, Bishop Scharfenberger lifted up the cross, faced the people and invited them to venerate the cross. Inside Bishop Scharfenberger and the diocesan priests made their way to the baptismal font where they led the faithful in the “rite of memorial of Baptism.” The celebration of the Mass followed.
Jubilee prayers began across the United States when bishops opened the Jubilee Year on the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, which was celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas Day. In some dioceses, like in the Diocese of Albany, the opening rite preceded a procession of the faithful to or within the cathedral for Mass.
A jubilee or holy year is a special year in the life of the church currently celebrated every 25 years. The most recent ordinary jubilee was in 2000, with Pope Francis calling for an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015-16.
Jubilee years have been held on regular intervals in the Catholic Church since 1300, but they trace their roots to the Jewish tradition of marking a jubilee year every 50 years.
According to the Vatican website for the jubilee, these years in Jewish history were “intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.”
On Dec. 24, Pope Francis opened the Holy Doors at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican to launch the Holy Year. Coinciding with other diocesan celebrations Dec. 29, Cardinal Baldo Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, opened Holy Doors at St. John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral.
Holy Doors were also opened at Rome’s other two major basilicas, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls, on Jan. 1 and Jan. 5, respectively. Pope Francis also opened Holy Doors on Dec. 26 at Rome’s Rebibbia prison, which Vatican officials said was a papal first. Unlike the practice in the Year of Mercy, diocesan cathedrals will not designate their own holy doors.
Some Masses included the hymn “Pilgrims of Hope,” which the Holy See commissioned for the Jubilee Year.
More than 30 million pilgrims are expected in Rome over the course of the Jubilee Year, with many of them seeking a special indulgence offered in the Holy Year. However, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, the Jubilee indulgence may be obtained in Catholics’ local dioceses by visiting cathedrals or other churches or sacred places designated by the local bishop.
The Holy Year will end at St. Peter’s Jan. 6, 2026, with diocesan celebrations ending Dec. 28, 2025.
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