Pilgrims of Hope: Walking Towards the 2025 Jubilee

Phil McCarthy • September 18, 2023

Thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim remission

to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee."

Leviticus 25:10

Pope Francis has declared that 2025 will be a Jubilee, a Holy Year, and the theme he has chosen is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’. The Jubilee logo shows figures coming from the four corners of the earth. They embrace each other showing the solidarity and fraternity which should unite us all. The leading figure holds a cross as a sign of Christian faith. The cross becomes an anchor, a symbol of hope, providing stability in the stormy waters we all experience on our pilgrimages through life.

The idea of a Holy Year has ancient roots. In the Genesis creation story God rested on the seventh day, which became the Sabbath. In the Jewish tradition the seventh year became a time of renewal, called a ‘sabbatical’. Following this pattern either the 49^th year (7 x 7) or the following 50^th year became a ‘jubilee’, a time of joy, remission of debts and pardon of offences. Similar thinking underpins the Christian jubilee.

The late 13^th Century was a time of war and plague, and thousands of pilgrims came to Rome at Christmas in 1299. In response to the needs of the faithful, on 22^nd February 1300, Pope Boniface VIII declared a pardon all sins for those who were truly penitent, confessed their sins, and visited the basilicas of St Peter and St Paul in Rome. Pilgrims were required to visit the basilicas daily for fifteen days and Roman residents for thirty days. Presumably this took account of the difficulties and dangers of medieval pilgrimage rather than the relative wickedness of the locals!

Pope Boniface intended that jubilees should be every 100 years, but Pope Clement VI held one in 1350. In 1470 Pope Paul II decreed that they should be held every 25 years, and this has been the general rule ever since. He also permitted people to visit a designated church in their own country. For the Great Jubilee of 2000 there was a three-year preparatory period and great efforts were made to involve Christians of other traditions.

The most important part of the Jubilee ceremonial is the opening of the Holy Door in each of the four great Roman basilicas of St Peter’s, St John Lateran, St Mary Major and St Paul Outside the Walls. The Doors are opened at the beginning of the Jubilee and sealed up again afterwards. Traditionally the pope himself opens and closes the Holy Doors of St Peter's. Walking through a Holy Door is a powerful symbol of personal transformation: pilgrims can lay down their baggage of brokenness and sin outside the Holy Door, walk over the threshold into the church, and rededicate themselves to a new life of mercy, freedom and hope as part of the Body of Christ.

It is anticipated that over 30 million people will travel to Rome during the Holy Year. Pope Francis wrote in his letter declaring the Jubilee:

“In the realization that all of us are pilgrims on this earth, which the Lord has charged us to till and keep (cf. Gen 2:15), may we never fail, in the course of our sojourn, to contemplate the beauty of creation and care for our common home.”

We live in a time of global warming, so a walking pilgrimage in England & Wales is a greener option than flying to Rome. We can contemplate the beauty of creation in our own countries and care for our common home by using public transport to the start and finish of our journeys. There is much to discover and rejoice in throughout our beautiful and ancient lands. During previous Jubilees there have been Holy Doors in churches and cathedrals around the world where pilgrims can receive the same graces as in Rome, and hopefully this will be the case for 2025.

I hope the Hearts in Search of God Project will be an inspiration and a practical help in your preparation for the Holy Year and your celebration of it. By late 2024 there will be walking guidance together with practical and spiritual resources for Pilgrim Ways in every diocese of England & Wales. Please register for updates.

Phil McCarthy, Project Lead

The Jubilee Prayer

Father in heaven,

may the faith you have gifted us in

your son Jesus Christ, our brother,

and the flame of charity

kindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,

reawaken in us, the blessed hope

for the coming of your Kingdom.

May your grace transform us

into diligent cultivators of the evangelical seeds

that make humanity and the cosmos rise

unto the confident expectation

of the new heavens and the new earth,

when with the powers of Evil overcome,

your glory shall be manifested eternally.

May the grace of the Jubilee

reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,

the yearning for heavenly treasures

and pour over all the earth

the joy and peace

of our Redeemer.

To you God blessed in eternity,

be praise and glory for ever and ever.

Amen.

Franciscus

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The Pilgrimage of Hope is open for day pilgrims to register!

By Phil McCarthy • June 5, 2025

Registration for day pilgrims to join the 2025 National Walking Pilgrimage of Hope is now open! The Pilgrimage of Hope is a national walking pilgrimage with four main Ways converging at the Cathedral of St Barnabas, Nottingham, on Saturday 13th September 2025, for shared prayer and celebration. The four main Ways start at the Catholic cathedrals in Cardiff, Leeds, Norwich and Southwark, London, and will bless our nations with a Sign of the Cross and with the Gospels. The routes are named after the Evangelists and use established hiking routes and are off road as much as possible. A small group of 4-6 'perpetual pilgrims' will walk the full distance of each Way, and up to 20 day pilgrims will be able to join for day stages. Stretches which are suitable for wheelchairs and buggies have been be identified. There will be opportunities for non-walkers to provide enroute support, hospitality and prayer. There are possible feeder routes to the four main Ways from all the other Catholic cathedrals of England & Wales for keen long-distance walkers, so people from every diocese can organise their own pilgrimages. More information and registration Information about how to support the Pilgrimage with prayer and hospitality and how to register to walk stages as day pilgrims can be found here . Wishing you every blessing and joy during this Jubilee year, as we strive to become ‘pilgrims of hope’. I hope to meet many of you in Nottingham on 13th September. Buen camino! Phil McCarthy, Project Lead

Walking in the steps of London's saints

By Colette Joyce /ICN • June 4, 2025

A group of 25 pilgrims gathered at the English Martyrs Church by Tower Hill last Thursday morning, Feast of the Ascension, to take part in the Westminster Way Jubilee Year Pilgrimage, led by Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Colette Joyce. At each station we prayed and reflected on saints connected to London and the inspiration they continue to be for us today: St John Houghton and the Carthusian Martyrs of the Reformation, the missionary St Augustine of Canterbury, St Anne Line who sheltered priests and held secret Masses in her home during the Elizabethan persecution, St Erconwald, St Ethelburga and St Etheldreda. We remembered the scholars of the 7th century who brought learning and education to both men and women, and St John Henry Newman whose own spiritual journey of conversion and prophetic sense of the nature of the Church had a profound influence on the 20th century leading up to the Second Vatican Council. From the church we walked past the Tower of London, where so many Catholic martyrs met their fate during the Reformation, stopping to pray at the site of the scaffold where St John Fisher and St Thomas More were executed. Our next stop was Mary Moorfields, the only Catholic Church in the City of London. From here we walked to the Charterhouse, once a Carthusian priory and home to the first martyrs of the Reformation. The Prior, St John Houghton and Companions were hung and quartered for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Watching from his cell window, St Thomas More witnessed the monks being dragged on hurdles from the Tower of London on 4 May 1535. He is said to have admired their courage and faith as they went to their deaths, viewing them as "Cheerfully going to their deaths as bridegrooms going to their marriage." From here we walked to St Etheldreda's, Ely Place, one of the oldest Catholic churches in London. Built around 1250 as the town chapel for the bishops of Ely. After the Reformation It had several owners . For a a time it was used by the Spanish ambassador as a private chapel. During Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, it was used as a prison and a hospital. The Rosminians bought St Etheldreda's in 1874 and have restored it beautifully. As we were walking during Laudato Si' Week, pilgrim leader Colette Joyce invited pilgrims to reflect on the flora and fauna of London on our way. London is a surprisingly green city, blessed with around twenty percent tree coverage - which makes it technically a forest! We are especially grateful to the Victorians who planted the ubiquitous London Plane trees which can be found in streets and parks all over the city, while there are more than 400 other species of tree to discover. "The entire material universe speaks of God's love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God… contemplation of creation allows us to discover in each thing a teaching which God wishes to hand on to us." (Laudato Si', 84-85) After a stop at Corpus Christi Church in Covent Garden - where former parish priest Fr Francis Stanfield wrote Sweet Sacrament Divine and Mgr Ronald Knox preached his famous homilies on the Blessed Sacrament - we made our way down the Strand, past Traflagar Square, through Whitehall, down to Westminster Cathedral. On our arrival, we weary walkers were greeted by the Cathedral Dean, Fr Slawomir Witoń. We ended our pilgrimage with prayers in the Martyrs Chapel and a reflection from Fr Slawomir on the life and witness of St John Southworth, patron saint of clergy in the Diocese of Westminster. The pilgrims received the final stamp in their Pilgrim Passports and a blessing before returning home. Colette Joyce, Westminster Diocese Justice and Peace Co-Ordinator Read more about the Westminster Way: https://westminsterjusticeandpeace.org/2025/06/02/walking-the-westminster-way/ This article was first published on Independent Catholic News: Independent Catholic News Image: Pilgrims at Westminster Cathedral (Archdiocese of Westminster)

The Psychology of Pilgrimage

By Phil McCarthy • June 3, 2025

In this podcast I discuss the psychology of pilgrimage, especially as it relates to visiting First World War battlefields and cemeteries.

Walking the St Wulstan Way

By Peter Chisholm • May 31, 2025

Pilgrims joined Fr Gerry Walsh tracing St Wulstan’s life and legacy, from Worcester Cathedral to Clifton Cathedral as part of the Catholic Church’s Year of Jubilee, “Pilgrims of Hope” celebrations. Participants explored their faith while journeying through stunning landscapes and historic locations.