NCBC PASTORAL LETTER ON OCCASION OF JUBILEE-2025

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NCBC PASTORAL LETTER ON OCCASION OF JUBILEE-2025

PILGRIMS OF HOPE

NCBC Pastoral Letter on the Occasion of Jubilee-2025
(Guidelines on the Celebration of Jubilee-2025)

To all the Priests, Deacons, Religious and Lay faithful,

We are privileged to be in this Jubilee Year of 2025. This is an ordinary Jubilee that occurs every
25 years, unlike other extra-ordinary Jubilee years, like the Jubilee year of Mercy in 2015. This
Jubilee Year 2025 began with the traditional opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on
December 24, 2024 by Pope Francis and continues until the closing of the Holy Door on January
6, 2026, the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. The theme of the Jubilee 2025 is “Pilgrims of
Hope.” We officially inaugurated the Jubilee Year in the Namibian Church on the 26th of January
2025, with the solemn Holy Mass by the Apostolic Nuncio, His Ex. Archbp. Henryk Jagodziński.
As we find in the book of Leviticus (25:8-13), the Jubilee year is meant as an opportunity to restore
and correct our relationship with God, with other people and with the whole creation. And for us, a
Jubilee Year is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation, experiencing God’s mercy as well
as sharing it with others. The Holy Father decrees that, in this Jubilee year, every effort should be
made so that the faithful People of God can participate fully in the observance and celebration of
it, in particular, “in its proclamation of hope in God’s grace and in the signs that attest to its
efficacy,” (Spes Non Confundit, 6). And the same Papal Bull specifies details regarding how to
celebrate this Jubilee year more meaningfully in the local churches.
In the light of this, from the office of the Archbishop/Bishop/Apostolic Administrator you will
receive specific guidelines for a meaningful celebration of the Jubilee Year 2025. However, we
would like you to consider the following aspects, so that this year of grace does not pass without
bearing the fruits of hope and joy .
Firstly, the Spiritual aspect of the Jubilee-2025 should not be missed amidst our various activities.
One of the most important graces we are offered during this Jubilee year is the Plenary Indulgence,
which we can obtain both for our beloved departed ones as well as for ourselves. This specific grace
should not be overlooked at all. An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal
punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven (Catechism of the Catholic Church,
n. 1471). This means that the indulgence removes the debt of penance that we owe for the effects
of our sins. “Indulgences are granted through the ministry of the Church which, as the dispenser of
the grace of redemption, distributes the treasury of the merits of Christ and the Saints to us.”
(NCBC’s Pastoral Letter on Indulgence during the Year of Faith). “The Jubilee indulgence, thanks
to the power of prayer, is intended in a particular way for those who have gone before us, so that
they may obtain full mercy,” (Spes Non Confundit, 22). So, we request all, especially all the priests
to emphasize this great treasure of the Church during this year, for the benefit of the faithful.

Secondly, as Pope Francis suggested, “During the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of
hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind,” (Spes Non
Confundit,10).” This includes, the poor, the needy, the prisoners, the migrants, the elderly, the sick
and also the youth. Therefore, we exhort you to do your best to make our parishes and our nation
places of hopeful joy, especially by organising activities for them. As we share the pains suffered
by many in our country, from drought, from poverty, from unemployment, from sicknesses and
lack of care and being aware that there are lot of elements, that plague and drag thousands into the
pit of hopelessness, let us try to spread the gift of hope sparked by the Holy Spirit to as many people
as we can. This hope is not simply optimism or a positive feeling, but prompting of the Holy Spirit
urging us to act. The reason why our Hope does not disappoint us is “because the love of God has
been poured out into our hearts,” (Rom 5:5). And for the same reason, we are called to extend this
love to others, for “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another,” (1 Jn 4:11). “Through
our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it. May the way we live our lives say
to them in so many words: ‘Hope in the Lord! Hold firm, take heart and hope in the Lord!’
(Ps 27:14),” (Spes Non Confundit 25).
Thirdly, the Jubilee 2025 must be an opportunity to revitalise parish life, for it is a call to action for
everyone in our parishes to embrace the message of Christian hope. “My thoughts turn to all those
‘pilgrims of hope’ who will travel to Rome in order to experience the Holy Year and to all those
others who, though unable to visit the City of the Apostles Peter and Paul, will celebrate it in their
local Churches. For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with
the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim
always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope’ (1 Tim 1:1),” (Spes Non Confundit,1). Therefore, we
request you to organise various activities as per the diocesan directives and at your own initiatives,
particularly following the Jubilee Calendar from Rome, so that every member of the parish will
experience a year of grace and the parishes may be revived and renewed in spirit.
We pray with Pope Francis: “Lord May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds
of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the
sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when with the powers of Evil vanquished your
glory will shine eternally” (The Jubilee Prayer). And we entrust our journey of hope, with our
afflictions and dreams unto the hands of Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Hope, that she may
accompany and guide us as we follow the Way of Jesus, Our Lord. Amen.
Given in Windhoek, on the 11th of February, 2025, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes.