Indulgences in the Jubilee Year 2025

“Now the time has come for a new Jubilee, when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God” (Spes non confundit, 6).

One of the great graces of the Jubilee Year lies in the opportunity it presents us for starting afresh, for conversion and restoration of our relationship with God. God is his mercy wants to forgive our sins. The Jubilee Year provides us with opportunities to be free from the consequences of sin - past and present - which leaves a mark on our lives. The Jubilee indulgence is offered to remove the punishments due to our having sinned and wounded our relationship with God. It is a way for us to begin afresh and restore our communion with God. We can also obtain the indulgence on behalf of the souls in purgatory.

The first step in obtaining the Jubilee indulgence is a desire for repentance and conversion. We undertake to detach our lives from sin - even venial sins.

Secondly, as “pilgrims of hope” during this Holy Year, we undertake to receive devoutly the Sacrament of Penance and Holy Communion, and to pray for the Pope’s intentions in one of the following ways:

1. By pilgrimage or visit to any sacred Jubilee site in Rome, the Holy Land; or to one of Ireland’s National Pilgrimages at Knock, Lough Derg or Croagh Patrick; or to a designated local Jubilee Church - St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, St Peter’s Church, Drogheda, or the Cathedral of St Patrick and St Colman, Newry; or to a similarly designated Jubilee site in another diocese. In each case we participate in the organised pilgrimage exercises, or make a “Jubilee visit”, consisting of engaging in Eucharistic adoration, meditation and prayer, concluding with the Our Father, the Profession of Faith and invocations to Mary, the Mother of God.

Note: Those who for reasons of sickness, age, vital work or other reasons who cannot make such a pilgrimage visit, may obtain the Jubilee indulgence by uniting from their homes and offering up their sufferings or hardships in spirit with the faithful taking part in person.

2. By works of mercy and penance

Visit someone in need or in difficulty (the sick, prisoners, lonely, elderly people, disabled people...)

Dedicate Friday fasting or abstinence.

Support the defence and protection of life in all its phases; the cause of abandoned children, young people in difficulty, the needy or lonely elderly people, or migrants; volunteer in the community; make a charitable donation for the poor. 

Participate in popular missions, spiritual exercises, or formation activities on the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, held in a church or other suitable place.