Bishop to close Jubilee Year Dec. 28

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications 
 
Pope Francis designated 2025 as a jubilee year and opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24, 2024, to usher in the Jubilee Year of Hope. The Diocese of Sioux City opened the jubilee year Jan. 26, 2025, with Mass at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City celebrated by Bishop Walker Nickless.
 
Bishop John E. Keehner will close the jubilee year in the diocese Dec. 28 at the 10 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral of the Epiphany. All are welcome to attend.
 
“Because a jubilee year is an extraordinary year of graces and blessings which happens once every 25 years, it is a year that is opened and closed with considerable fanfare,” explained Father Andrew Galles, diocesan director of worship.
 
He noted that Pope Leo XIV will close the holy jubilee doors at St. Peter’s Basilica on the traditional date for the solemnity of the Epiphany – Jan. 6.
 
“In his bull on the jubilee year, Spes non confundit, Pope Francis decreed that this holy year would conclude a little earlier in the rest of the dioceses throughout the world,” Father Galles said. “Therefore, it was instructed that a Mass celebrated by the diocesan bishop in his cathedral church will take place on Dec. 28, the feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph … this is the only Eucharist that is celebrated to mark the closing of the jubilee.”
 
Year of Hope
During jubilee years, Catholics are encouraged to travel to Rome for a pilgrimage. As most of the faithful would not be able to travel to Rome, bishops named jubilee pilgrimage sites in their dioceses.
 
Bishop Walker Nickless open Jubilee Year of Hope for Diocese of Sioux City on Jan. 26, 2025.Bishop Nickless designated four sites – Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City, Trinity Heights Queen of Peace Shrine in Sioux City, Grotto of the Redemption Shrine with Sts. Peter and Paul Church in West Bend and St. Joseph Parish in Milford. 

In his May 2024 decree, the Holy Father granted indulgence opportunities for pilgrims who travel to jubilee sites either in Rome, the Holy Land or a site designated by their local bishop. Bishop Nickless wrote in his jubilee letter that those who made a pilgrimage to one of the four diocesan sites could be granted an indulgence.
  
 As a result, there were numerous efforts around the diocese to take advantage of the jubilee year and the four pilgrimage sites. The diocesan Office of Faith Formation created a webpage of resources to help the faithful to plan a pilgrimage, learn about the Jubilee Year of Hope and included articles published in The Lumen about activities in the diocese about the pilgrimage.
 
The Grotto of the Redemption offered pilgrimage options to satisfy the requirements to obtain the plenary indulgence for the Year of Hope. Options included tours, Mass, lunch, confession and prayer books.
 
The grotto also coordinated a pilgrimage for high school students from Bishop Garrigan in Algona and St. Edmond in Fort Dodge to make a joint pilgrimage in September. Nearly 300 attended.
 
Grotto rector Msgr. Ed Girres led the permanent deacons of the diocese and their wives on pilgrimage in August. The event concluded with Mass with Bishop Keehner.

The Faith Formation Office invited parish faith leaders to join them as they traveled to the four diocesan pilgrimage sites.
 
Just last week, Humboldt St. Mary Parish hosted an Advent pilgrimage to provide an encounter opportunity for adults and students.
 
During RAGBRAI last July, event organizers at St. Joseph Church in Milford encouraged riders to visit the pilgrimage site church for adoration.
 
To further assist the faithful in exploring jubilee year activity options, Father Galles recorded an Illuminating Catholics podcast in February to explain the plenary indulgences and the pilgrimage sites.
 
The director of worship noted on the podcast that Father David Esquiliano, Cathedral Parish pastor and diocesan judicial vicar, was serving as chaplain for a pilgrimage to Rome in November, visiting holy sites in Rome, Assisi, Cascia and Naples and walking through the holy doors.
 
“Some of the people who traveled with Father Esquiliano to Rome for the jubilee pilgrimage will be present at this (closing) Mass,” Father Galles recently pointed out. “Everyone is invited to take part in this liturgy in which we give thanks to God for the divine favor and mercy that he has poured out during this past jubilee year.”