“Hope does not disappoint”: this is the title, in Latin Spes non confundit, of the bull with which Pope Francis proclaimed the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025. This expression of Saint Paul (Rom 1:5) contains all the richness of the Bull: hope, rooted in Christ who died and rose again, offers the certainty of God’s love; for this reason it does not disappoint and, “together with faith and charity, forms the triptych of the ‘theological virtues,’ which express the essence of Christian life (cf. 1 Cor 13:13; 1 Thess 1:3)” (no. 18). We all need hope: it is something irrepressible in our hearts, and Francis recalled: “Everything, within and outside us, invokes hope and seeks God’s closeness,” capable of opening before us an eternal horizon.
With Pope Francis’s Bull, horizons of great importance for us therefore open up. We are called to be alert and take action, because before us lies a great adventure that may have consequences in terms of grace, but also social opportunities for all of us.

A journey of hope

In the Bull, the word “hope” appears 96 times, and Pope Francis points all of us toward a journey shaped by the subtitles included in the document. The starting point is to offer “A word of hope,” and then to outline “A journey of hope” that becomes concrete through certain “Signs of hope.” Then, taking into account that we live in times marked by so much “gloom,” by “just getting by,” and sometimes by a total lack of hope, the Pope feels the need to make “Appeals for hope” resound, addressed especially to those who hold humanity’s fate in their hands. Finally, the concluding invitation takes up the image that sustains believers’ lives: being “Anchored in hope.” 

The Jubilee begins on December 24

Then comes the chronology of the Jubilee year, which will begin on December 24 with the opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica, followed the next Sunday, December 29, by the opening of the Holy Door at Saint John Lateran. On the same day, the Holy Father establishes that “in all cathedrals and co-cathedrals, diocesan bishops are to celebrate the Holy Eucharist as the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year.”
On January 1, 2025, the Holy Door of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major will be opened, while on Sunday, January 5, the Holy Door of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls will be opened. These last three Holy Doors will be closed by Sunday, December 28 of the same year, as will the Holy Doors in particular Churches on that same day.
The Ordinary Jubilee will conclude with the solemn closing of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica on January 6, 2026.

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it changes the future

The Pope also addresses specific topics related to the Jubilee, such as pilgrimage, the meaning and value of indulgence, and the sacrament of Penance. Regarding indulgence, the Bull offers an interesting perspective: “This full experience of forgiveness cannot but open our hearts and minds to forgive. Forgiveness does not change the past; it cannot alter what has already happened. Yet forgiveness can enable us to change the future and to live differently, without resentment, bitterness and revenge. A future brightened by forgiveness makes it possible to read the past with different, more serene eyes, even if they are still clouded with tears” (no. 23). Increasingly often, in our daily lives, we find ourselves coming face to face with a world that seems ever less willing to forgive and increasingly inclined toward revenge, resentment and hatred. These feelings do not lead to hope, but to despair, because they prevent us from looking to the future and achieving happiness.

Deep unity between the proclamation of hope and the signs that make it concrete

This Bull represents a point of reference, a kind of compass that enables us to orient ourselves toward the Jubilee. One of the Bull’s most original passages is highlighted by these words: “Care should be taken to ensure that the People of God can welcome with full participation both the proclamation of the hope of God’s grace and the signs that attest to its effectiveness” (no. 6). This means that “in addition to drawing hope from God’s grace, we are called to rediscover it also in the signs of the times that the Lord offers us” (no. 7). In this way, we can avoid the risk of remaining in a theoretical sphere, stopping merely at the proclamation of hope, without feeling the need for involvement that leads to direct and concrete personal commitment. “Let us not therefore neglect Confession, but rediscover the beauty of the sacrament of healing and joy, the beauty of the forgiveness of sins!” (no. 23).

The signs of hope

The list of signs proposed by the Bull for looking to the future with hope deserves to be remembered: peace; the transmission of life; and prisoners, for whom the Pope intends to open even a “Holy Door” inside a prison “so that it may be for them a symbol that invites them to look to the future with hope and renewed commitment to life” (no. 10). Of particular importance is the appeal to believers, especially bishops, to courageously request “dignified conditions for those imprisoned, respect for human rights and, above all, the abolition of the death penalty, a measure contrary to the Christian faith that destroys every hope of forgiveness and renewal” (no. 10).

Signs of hope should be offered to young people and the elderly; to the sick, displaced persons, migrants and refugees: “May their hopes not be thwarted by prejudice and closed-mindedness; may welcome, which opens its arms to everyone according to their dignity, be accompanied by responsibility, so that no one is denied the right to build a better future” (no. 13). Finally, the Pope fervently invokes hope “for the billions of poor, who often lack what is necessary to live” and who “almost always are victims, not culprits” (no. 15)

Appeals for hope

Further signs of hope that require everyone’s commitment become, for the Pope, genuine “appeals” that are very relevant today: respect for creation: “Awaiting the changing of the seasons with their fruits; observing the lives of animals and the cycles of their development; having the simple eyes of Saint Francis” (no. 5); the more prosperous nations should decide to “cancel the debts of countries that could never repay them: before being a matter of generosity, it is a question of justice” (no. 16); the unity of Christians on the occasion of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea.

Happiness is the vocation of the human person

With great affection, Pope Francis writes: “By virtue of the hope in which we were saved, looking at the passage of time, we are certain that the history of humanity and that of each one of us are not heading toward a dead end or a dark abyss, but are directed toward the encounter with the Lord of glory. Let us therefore live in expectation of his return and in the hope of living forever in him” (no. 19).

Jesus, who died and rose again, is the heart of our faith. Christian hope consists precisely in this: before death, where everything seems to end, we receive the certainty that, thanks to Christ and his grace communicated to us in Baptism, “life is not taken away, but transformed” (Preface for the Dead I) forever.
Before the question that often arises in our hearts, “What, then, will become of us after death?”, Pope Francis responds: “With Jesus, beyond this threshold is eternal life, which consists in full communion with God, in contemplating and sharing in his infinite love. What we now live in hope, then we shall see in reality” (no. 21). And he continues: “What, then, will characterize this fullness of communion? Being happy. Happiness is the vocation of the human person, a goal that concerns everyone.” And he concludes: “We need a happiness that is definitively fulfilled in what fulfills us, namely, in love” (no. 21).

“May the Jubilee be for everyone an opportunity to revive hope” (no. 1): this is the wish for all, so that in this coming Holy Year we may rediscover hope and allow ourselves to be renewed by an encounter with the Lord’s mercy.
Have a good journey!