Jubilee 2025
Argyll and the Isles Diocesan Holy Year Pilgrimage
Our Diocese is organising a Holy Year Pilgrimage to Rome from 22nd-26th September 2025. During the Pilgrimage we will visit the four Papal Basilicas and enter through their Holy Doors. The Pilgrimage will be led by Bishop Brian. Sincere gratitude to Fr Stan Pamula for organising the Pilgrimage. For full details please follow this link.
Chrism Mass - Wednesday 9th April 2025
The Chrism Mass is celebrated in St Columba’s Cathedral and is the liturgical highlight of the diocesan year. The Holy Oils which are used during the celebration of the Sacraments are blessed and then distributed to all our parishes. The Sacraments remind us that we do not journey alone through life but are accompanied constantly by Christ and therefore we are ‘Pilgrims of Hope’.
During the Chrism Mass our priests will also renew their commitment to serve the Lord and his People. Please come and pray with and for our priests who daily accompany us in our journey through life.
The Chrism Mass is celebrated in St Columba’s Cathedral, Oban on Wednesday 9th April at 6.30pm. Please make a special effort to attend during this Jubilee Year. A Plenary Indulgence can be obtained by participating in this year’s Chrism Mass.
Deanery Holy Year Masses
Local events are an important element of the Jubilee. Bishop Brian will celebrate Mass in each Deanery during the Holy Year. All parishioners and clergy are invited to come together in one place to celebrate the Jubilee Mass of Hope and obtain a Plenary Indulgence. Many will need to make a journey to join their Deanery Mass but this symbolises our journey through life, which we make in together in hope because of our faith. The Deanery Masses remind us that that we are part of a larger family of faith.
The Diocesan Jubilee Cross, which is displayed in our Cathedral, will be brought to the Deanery Mass and afterwards will visit each parish for local veneration. Each parish will decide how long to host the Cross and how they wish to venerate it.
The dates and venues of the Deanery Masses are:
Lochaber: Thursday 20th March 6pm St John the Evangelist, Caol
Western Isles: Sunday 3rd August, 2pm St Barr’s, North Bay, Isle of Barra
Argyll: Tuesday 28th October, time to be confirmed, St Andrew’s, Rothesay, Isle of Bute
Diocesan Pilgrimage to Iona
We hope to organise a pilgrimage to Iona in June, close to the date for the Feast of St Columba - more details will follow.
In May 2024, Pope Francis introduced the Jubilee Year 2025 with the Papal Bull Spes Non Confundit (translated as “Hope does not disappoint”), inspired by Romans 5:5.
In the Bull, the Holy Father underlined that the Jubilee will “be a Holy Year marked by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God” and prayed that it may help us “to recover the confident trust that we require, in the Church and in society, in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations, and in our task of promoting the dignity of all persons and respect for God’s gift of creation” (SNC No. 25).
The Holy Year began officially with the opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica by Pope Francis on 24 December and The Holy Father then preside over the celebration of the Christmas Eve Mass inside the Basilica.
A Jubilee Year or a Holy Year is a great religious event. It is a year of forgiveness of sins, reconciliation and conversion. According to the website for the event, the word “Jubilee” comes from “yobel” (ram’s horn) – the name of the instrument used to proclaim the day of atonement (Yom kippur). In the Old Testament (Lev 25: 8-13), we find indications of a Jubilee Year to be marked every 50 years, since it would be an “extra” year which happened after ‘every seven weeks of seven years’ (after 49 years).
Over time, the frequency of the years has changed: at first, they were celebrated every 100 years; later, in 1343 Pope Clement VI reduced the gap between jubilees to every 50 years, and in 1470 Pope Paul II made it every 25 years.
A jubilee can be “ordinary” if it falls after a set number of years (25 years) and “extraordinary” when it is proclaimed for an outstanding event. The most recent ordinary jubilee was in 2000, which marked the beginning of the new millennium. In 2015, Pope Francis called for an “extraordinary” Jubilee Year of Mercy. The first ordinary Jubilee was proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300.
Opening the Holy Doors is a significant part of the Jubilee Year. Pope Martin V opened the Holy Door for the first time in the history of the Jubilee in 1423 at the Basilica of St John Lateran. For the Holy Year 1500, Pope Alexander VI desired that the Holy Doors be opened in the other Roman Basilicas as well as at St John Lateran.
Other jubilee events will take place in Rome during the Jubilee Year, including gatherings with liturgies, speakers, and papal audiences to celebrate different groups such as the armed forces, artists, deacons, and marching bands. A few events of note will be the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis during the jubilee of Teenagers (25-27 April), and the canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati during the Jubilee of Youth (28 July - 3 August).
The Jubilee Year 2025 will end with the closing of the Holy Doors at St Peter’s Basilica in January 2026 on the feast of the Epiphany.
(With thanks to the website of the Jesuit Curia in Rome for this introductory text.)