During a visit to the Archdiocese of New York earlier this month, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst, the Vatican’s Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promotion of the New Evangelization, introduced archdiocesan leadership to preliminary plans for the 2025 Jubilee year, which will begin on December 24, 2024.

Jubilee years normally occur every 25 years. Pope Francis also declared an extraordinary Jubilee year in 2015. Each usually lasts slightly longer than a calendar year. The 2025 event will continue until January 6, 2026.

Born in Germany, Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst is based in Rome and serves as the Vatican’s Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promotion of the New Evangelization, which is part of the Dicastery of Evangelization. The bishop said that the dicastery’s staff has temporarily expanded from 20 to 56 to prepare for the upcoming year.

During his April visit to the archdiocese, Bishop Tebartz-van Elst celebrated Mass at the Office of Family Life’s second annual Family Life Conference in Tarrytown on Saturday, April 13. He also concelebrated Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on April 14. “The Cathedral is much brighter now,” having been renovated in the mid-2010s. He also attended a concert and garden party at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers.

“I admire the Catholic Church in the United States because it is clear in its teaching, and it is so close to the people,” Bishop Tebartz-van Elst told The Good Newsroom in an interview.

Jubilee could draw 44 million visitors

A preliminary study of the number of pilgrims and tourists expected to visit Rome during the Jubilee year is as high as 44 million, the bishop said.

The theme for the 2025 Jubilee year is “Pilgrims of Hope.” One highlight is that the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica will be opened by the pope, and remain open throughout the year. Pilgrims that pass through it will receive a plenary indulgence.

The Jubilee year is “a big chance for all those who come and all those who can’t come to be more focused on this message of hope. That has been one of the motivations for choosing this topic, ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’ because we say we are all looking for more hope, especially after these times of Covid, the Ukrainian war, and the war in Israel right now, we are looking for signs of hope,” the bishop said. 

Bishop Tebartz-van Elst was careful to note that while in 2015, dioceses beyond Rome were able to designate their own holy doors during the Jubilee, that will not be available in 2025. A full plan for those who wish to participate but are unable or unwilling to travel to Rome will be released at a later date. The Archdiocese of New York’s Office of Family Life will play a prominent role in the Jubilee year, the bishop said.

“It is also the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council, and so we have edited a lot of materials, prayer books, and so on, about the theology of the Second Vatican Council to renew faith by reading these important documents that have been developed,” he said.