Jubilee of the Universal Church
On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Pope Francis officially proclaimed the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025 with the public reading and delivery of Spes Non Confundit, the Bull of Indicition for the Jubilee Holy Year 2025.
The Jubilee Year will offer the faithful opportunities to participate in various jubilee events at the Vatican and in their own dioceses. The great tradition of opening the Holy Door will begin when Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on December 24, 2024. Other holy doors will be opened at the Rome basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul Outside the Walls. For pilgrims who cannot travel to Rome, bishops around the world are expected to designate their cathedrals or a popular Catholic shrine as special places of prayer for Holy Year pilgrims, offering opportunities for reconciliation, indulgences and other events intended to strengthen and revive faith.
Jubilee 2025-Diocese of Savannah
by Nathan Ware
Originally part of the vast Diocese of Baltimore (est. 1789), Georgia since 1820 had been included in the smaller Diocese of Charleston (composed of Georgia and the Carolinas). With the influx of Catholic immigrants from England, France, Germany, and (especially after the Great Famine) Ireland, in addition to enslaved Africans who had become Catholic, Georgia soon warranted its own diocese. The Provincial Council of Baltimore in May 1849 informed the Vatican, and on July 19, 1850, in a papal bull (see left), Pope Pius IX (Pio Nono) – having returned from exile just three months prior – raised Savannah to an episcopal see. Its jurisdiction included the entirety of Georgia plus Florida east of the Apalachicola River. At the time, the total population of that area was approximately 975,000, 5,500 of whom were Catholic, or roughly 0.6 percent. At the midpoint of the 19th century, 13 Catholic churches and 13 Catholic priests graced the state of Georgia….(to continue, click the link)
