Renewal, Restoration, Liberation among Emphasis at Launch of 2025 Jubilee Year in South African Catholic Dioceses

“May Jesus Christ, our peace and hope, be our companion as the pilgrim church in this year of grace. May He be our consolation and may the Holy Spirit who has begun this work both in us, bring it to completion in the most holy name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior,” Archbishop Mpambani implored in the SACBC podcast.

In South Africa’s Catholic Diocese of Tzaneen, Bishop João Noé Rodrigues identified renewal, restoration, and reconciliation as important at the Most Holy Trinity Cathedral, where he presided over the inauguration of the Jubilee Year on December 29, with representatives from across the Diocese in attendance.

“It was really a celebration of communion between everyone in the Diocese. We also had prepared the symbols for the jubilee which I distributed to each Parish,” Bishop Rodrigues has said in the SACBC podcast, and added, “These symbols were the poster itself with the general theme of Pilgrims of Hope. But we also added three sub-themes: Renewal, restoration, and reconciliation.”

The South African Catholic Bishop noted the inclusion of Jubilee prayers translated into multiple local languages, including Juvenda, Shitsonga, and Sesotho sa Leboa.

He encouraged the people of God under his pastoral care to hold similar celebrations to ensure that all embrace the spirit of the 2025 Jubilee Year, including those in the peripheries. 

“To bring all these communities together in the Parish is quite a challenge, but also very important for each Parish to do, as this Jubilee Year needs to be made known to all the Catholics in the Diocese,” Bishop Rodrigues said.

On his part, Bishop Thulani Victor Mbuyisa of the Catholic Diocese of Kokstad has reflected on the biblical significance of Jubilee, describing it as a year of renewal, liberation, and restoration.

“I reflected on the meaning of Jubilee or Holy Year, a year of renewal, a year of consolation and comfort, a year of freedom and liberation,” Bishop Mbuyisa said in the SACBC podcast, adding, “We are also in need of love, kindness, unity as well as hope.”

He continued, “All the participants from the parishes were then handed the Jubilee candle that they would take to their parishes, so that those who are in our parishes will have then the mini launch of the Jubilee Year together with the candles. Each one of them also received the prayer of the Jubilee year in various languages.”

“I hope and pray that this indeed will be a year of renewal for each and every one of us in our Diocese and that all of us also may be sowers of hope,” the South African member of the Congregation of Mariannhill Missionaries (CMM) said.

In the Catholic Diocese of Queenstown, Bishop Siphiwo Devilliers Paul Vanqa opened the Holy Door of Grace to mark the Jubilee Year, urging the people of God to work towards becoming “apostles of hope” for those in need.

“I encourage the pilgrims on the important aspects of how we need to be there for one another as the apostles of hope, bringing that hope to the people that are in need of God's presence in their lives,” Bishop Vanqa said in the SACBC podcast.

The South African member of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines) implored, “We pray and hope that the Lord will bless us so that we may continue to be the apostles of hope, especially to the people that are in need of it, the families, the parishes, the Diocese, and the whole conference.”

On his part, Bishop Joseph Mary Kizito of the Catholic Diocese of Aliwal underscored the importance of engaging young people as “ambassadors of hope” during the 2025 Jubilee Year.

“Our pastor plan gives us that opportunity to also look at the youth in our Dioceses. Let them be the ambassadors of hope, to witness to the gospel with hope, to be able to share their lives at school, in the families, places of work, with hope,” Bishop Kizito said in the SACBC podcast.

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He added, “Once the young people are filled with authentic and credible hope, then the message of Christ will reach far.”

The Ugandan-born Catholic Church leader expressed his awareness of the challenges youths in South Africa grapple with, saying, “A lot of our people, especially the youth, are broken in their hearts. They face a lot of difficulties. They have drug problems, alcohol, early pregnancy, and a lot of abuses.”

“The Jubilee of Hope really encouraged us to say we can accompany the young people. We invite them to do the spiritual works of mercy, abstaining, going for confession, and also to reach out to the poor, to the prisoners, to the elderly, and those who are sick, also to share the Bible, to be able to go for catechetical workshops, to be able to take their rightful place within the church,” Bishop Kizito said.

He warned, “If the youth feel that the church is not their place, then we are losing on them. Let this hope be visible in the synodal church. Pope Francis has called the young people to contribute to the synodal renewal of the church.”

Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica before Mass on Christmas Eve, officially launching the Jubilee Year 2025.

Earlier, he had announced the start of a Year of Prayer on 21 January 2024 in preparation for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, the second in his Pontificate after the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015.

The Holy Father said that the 2025 Jubilee Year will be “a year dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in one’s personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world.”

On the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ on 9 May 2024, Pope Francis solemnly proclaimed the upcoming Jubilee Year 2025 at a ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica, during which he delivered the Bull of Indiction of the planned Jubilee, “Spes non confundit” (Hope does not disappoint).

The Jubilee Year provides the people of God across the globe an opportunity to participate in various planned jubilee events at the Vatican and in their respective Episcopal Sees and Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (ICLSAL).