As the year comes to a close, Bishop reflects on Jubilee, Christ’s mercy and love

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

The 2025 Jubilee Year — Pilgrims of Hope — will soon be coming to a close, with the doors of St. Peter’s Basilica to be sealed on the celebration of the Epiphany, Jan. 6 as the official end of the Jubilee. For the rest of the dioceses around the world, Holy Doors are set to close Dec. 28 — with the Diocese of Covington closing its during the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption’s 10 a.m. Mass.

With the doors having opened during the first Sunday of Advent last year, it’s been a total of 13 months since the Jubilee celebrations began.

“I think people entered into this Jubilee with a good spirit,” Bishop John Iffert said, reflecting on the past year. “I encounter people all the time who are visiting the Cathedral, visiting the other churches we designated and who are seeking the Jubilee indulgence. It’s an opening of the font of mercy, and I think people have engaged that around the diocese, and that has been important.”

The Jubilee indulgence is a plenary indulgence that can only be granted during the Jubilee year by visiting St. Peter’s Basilica or any designated holy site — including in one’s own diocese. The Jubilee Year closing Mass on Dec. 28 will be the last opportunity to receive this indulgence.

Another key aspect of the past Jubilee year has been the theme of pilgrimage, as established by the late Pope Francis during the year’s beginnings, according to Bishop Iffert.

“We’re developing that theme of pilgrimage here in the diocese, both with our downtown churches pilgrimage on the Saturday before Palm Sunday,” a tradition that had already grown in the diocese prior to the Jubilee year, but saw record attendance during the celebration, “and then our international pilgrimages and local pilgrimages … and I think that’s fruitful for us all to remind ourselves that we’re a pilgrim people moving through the world, and that we rely on God’s mercy.”

As the Jubilee year draws to a close, Bishop Iffert invites the faithful to “keep the Advent season, and, as we always do, remember God’s mercy. Continue to read and pray and think around that theme of God’s mercy … we celebrate it in a particular way during these Jubilee years, but that doesn’t mean that it’s closed off to us. These Jubilee years are about emphasizing the centrality of mercy, in our beliefs and in the way God works with us.”

The Jubilee “points us towards our constant,” he said, “our call to constantly be moving towards sanctification. Events like the Jubilee Year point us towards the end, where Christ will gather us together in his mercy and his love.”