concluded the Catholic Church’s Holy Year on Tuesday, imploring Christians worldwide to assist those in need and extend kindness to foreigners.
Pope Leo, who has consistently emphasized the importance of supporting immigrants throughout his pontificate, stated at a Vatican ceremony that the record 33.5 million pilgrims who visited Rome during the Holy Year should have learned to refrain from viewing people as mere “products.”
“Around us, a distorted economy tries to profit from everything,” Leo remarked. “After this year, will we be better able to recognize a pilgrim in the visitor, a seeker in the stranger, a neighbor in the foreigner?”
Holy Years, or jubilees, typically occur every 25 years and are considered a period of peace, forgiveness, and pardon. Pilgrims visiting Rome have the opportunity to pass through special “Holy Doors” at four Roman basilicas and attend papal audiences throughout the year.
Pope Leo closed the special bronze door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday morning, officially marking the conclusion of the Holy Year.
The next Holy Year is anticipated in 2033, when the Catholic Church may observe a special jubilee to commemorate 2,000 years since the death of Jesus.
On Monday, officials from the Vatican and Italy reported that pilgrims to Rome for the 2025 jubilee hailed from 185 countries, with the largest contingents originating from Italy, the U.S., Spain, Brazil, and Poland.
The 2025 jubilee was inaugurated by the late Pope Francis, who passed away in April, and concluded by Pope Leo, who was elected in May, making him the first American pope.
This occurrence, where a Holy Year is opened by one pope and closed by another, is a historical rarity not seen in 300 years. The last jubilee to be presided over by two different popes took place in 1700, when Innocent XII opened the Holy Year, which was subsequently closed by Clement XI.
Pope Leo, who has pledged to uphold Pope Francis’s signature policies, such as welcoming gay Catholics and engaging in discussions about women’s ordination, echoed his predecessor’s frequent critiques of the global economic system in his remarks on Tuesday.
“The markets ‘turn human yearnings of seeking, traveling and beginning again into a mere business,'” Pope Leo stated.
Reuters contributed to this report.