Luis Quintana, ofm
2025, Jubilee Year of Redemption
Luis Quintana, ofm
2025, Jubilee Year of Redemption
‘The door of hope has been opened wide to the world’. With these words Pope Francis opened this year's Jubilee last Christmas Eve, following the tradition begun by Pope Boniface VIII in the year 1300.
On that day and on the following days, the Jubilee gates of Rome were opened (St. Peter's in the Vatican, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul outside the walls, and exceptionally the door of a prison).
Without being Jubilee doors, every bishop in his diocese also began the Jubilee year in a special way in his cathedral. And of all the places in the world, three special basilicas stand out: the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, all three in the Holy Land, in the territories of Israel and under the Palestinian Authority.
The Jubilee year is an opportunity of grace for the believer. We are invited in a special way to go on pilgrimage to the Holy City of Rome, the seat of the Successor of Peter. But also to the other holy cities of Christianity: Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela, Caravaca de la Cruz and Liébana. The Commissariat of the Holy Land organises various pilgrimages to gain these indulgences. It also organises the Pontifical Day for the Holy Places on Good Friday, which the Pope has been requesting for four centuries now, with the corresponding collection in all the churches of the world. This year the motto chosen is ‘Holy Land: Open Door to Hope’, and the poster shows the three basilicas mentioned above (Annunciation, Nativity and Holy Sepulchre) with their doors open and a procession in one of them.
This year, the Spanish people are especially in luck, because on the occasion of the Jubilee they will inaugurate two new chapels in the Holy Land, financed entirely by Spanish pilgrims. Both chapels are located on the grounds of the Shepherds' Field (Beit Sahour), three kilometres from Bethlehem, in the Holy Land. It was in 2018 that the Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land asked the Commissariats of the Holy Land throughout the world for help in building new spaces for celebrations in this area, given the large influx of pilgrims and the lack of means to welcome them with dignity. Our Commissariat of the Holy Land responded generously by financing the largest chapel, the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, and the Archbishopric of Toledo also wanted to take on another chapel, more modest and open-air, dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, already known as ‘the Spanish chapel’, is a new underground enclosure in the Campo de los Pastores. It seats about 400 people, and at the entrance door there is a stained glass window alluding to the Canticle of the Creatures by St. Francis of Assisi, the eighth centenary of whose composition we are celebrating precisely in this year 2025.
On the side walls there is the Stations of the Cross: fourteen stations made of bronze and illuminated with stone relics of the places of the Lord's Passion. The presbytery has a stone altar and ambo, and a wooden sanctuary. And the altarpiece is intended as a hymn to Mary Immaculate: 25 painted panels depicting the story of Mary in the Holy Land.
The central panel shows the image of Mary Immaculate from her conception. The chapel was completed in the year 2022, last year the main board and the ‘viacrucis’ were placed and blessed, and this year 2025, on the occasion of the jubilee, another 20 boards will be placed and blessed.
The Chapel of Guadalupe is just above the Chapel of the Im. The altarpiece is a large ceramic tile mural, made in the isotint and is the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Extremadura, with the people of God who venerate her: bishop, Franciscans, the religious and the canons. On Saturday, April 5 (2025), a Eucharist will be celebrated there, presided over by the Archbishop of Toledo, Mons. Francisco Cerro Chaves, accompanied by the Custos, Fr. Francesco Patton, and many other Franciscans from the Holy Land and Spain.
We wish this Jubilee Year 2025 to be a year of grace for the whole Church. May it be a source of Hope for a world with fears and darkness. May the Lord bless you with peace.
Author: Fr. Luis Quintana, ofm
Director of the Holy Land Centre
The authors are responsible for the choice and presentation of the facts contained in this document and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of Tourism and Society Think Tank and do not commit the Organization, and should not be attributed to TSTT or its members.
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