The Pope further decreed that every Catholic cathedral around the world should offer Mass on Dec. 29, 2024, as the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year for their local communities. Pope Francis encouraged dioceses to organize pilgrimages to the cathedrals for the occasion.

The society we live in needs it, often immersed only in the present and unable to look to the future, and our times, peoples, nations, who face future with anxiety and fear, while injustices continue, the poor are discarded and wars sow death, need it, he said.

Young people, often disoriented but eager to live fully, and the elderly also need hope, because the culture of waste no longer knows how to respect and listen.

Francis called in his new appeal for the cancellation of the debt of poor countries, actions to raise birth rate, the welcoming of immigrants and the creation of a fund to abolish hunger, as well as the commitment of diplomacy to peace because, “is it too much to dream that weapons will cease to cause destruction?”

“The first sign of hope translates into peace for the world, which is once again immersed in the tragedy of war,” he said, because “what is still lacking for these peoples that they have not already suffered?

How is it possible that their desperate cry for help does not push leaders of nations to want to put an end to too many regional conflicts, aware of the consequences that can arise at the global level,” he added, and questioned whether it is too much to dream that weapons will be silenced and stop bringing destruction and death?

He called on those who possess wealth to be generous with those who lack water and food, for “hunger is a scandalous plague on the body of our humanity and invites everyone to a leap of conscience”.

He reiterated his appeal “that with the money spent on arms and other military expenditures we establish a global fund to finally eliminate hunger and for the development of the poorest countries”, and also asked “to forgive the debts of poor countries” that will never be able to pay them.

The hope is that the Jubilee of 2025 will help everyone “to rediscover trust in the Church,” he said, but also “in society, in interpersonal relations, in international relations, in the promotion of the dignity of each person.

The Pope established that the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica will be opened on December 24, 2024, beginning the ordinary Jubilee and then the doors of the Vatican Basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major and St. Paul will be opened on December 29, as well as on January 1 and 5, 2025, respectively.

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