Special ceremony in Raphoe Diocese marks start of Jubilee Year 2025

A special ceremony was held at St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny at the weekend to mark the beginning of the Jubilee Year 2025.

The Catholic Church celebrates a Jubilee Year every 25 years.

The celebrations for Jubilee Year 2025: Year of Hope in the Raphoe Diocese began with a ceremony on Sunday in Letterkenny.

Diocesan Administrator Monsignor Kevin Gillespie led the event, which included a reenactment of the a ceremonial door opening.

In 2015, Pope Francis expanded the tradition of the opening of a ‘Holy Door’ to include each Diocese across the world. This meant that Catholics could “gain the plenary indulgences granted during the Jubilee year without having to travel to Rome”.

Monsignor Gillespie invited all parishioners to embrace a year dedicated to faith, forgiveness, and hope.

Pope Francis has described the Jubilee Year as “a time to rediscover the beauty of communion with God and with one another, a moment to open our hearts to the transforming power of grace, and to walk together as people of hope”.

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Jubilee Year 2025 will be marked by numerous spiritual events and activities at parish, diocesan, and national levels, including: pilgrimages to local and national shrines; monthly parish initiatives promoting prayer and reflection; and celebrations of key anniversaries, including the 400th anniversary of Saint Oliver Plunkett’s birth, and the centenary of Venerable Matt Talbot’s death.