The Church has made many statements that contradict alien belief.

by Daniel O’Connor

When it comes to the question of extraterrestrials, I can say with absolute certainty that belief in aliens is ruled out by Scripture, Tradition, Magisterium — and, especially, by Jesus words to Luisa!  (Copied below are some messages from the volumes.) 

It is true that the Church has not made a specific, ex-cathedra statement that explicitly addresses belief in aliens directly. But the Church has made many statements that contradict alien belief. 

The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta: In the “Whole Creation,” Only Man Has Reason

The Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta was an extraordinary Italian mystic who died in the year 1947 and received thousands of pages of approved revelations from Jesus and Mary. We will deal with her first, as I am convinced that the messages she received are the greatest private revelations in the history of the Church. (I encourage learning about her in Thy Will Be Done, published 2021). For now, a brief introduction will suffice. St. Hannibal di Francia—an Italian priest and founder of religious orders who was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2004—dedicated the last decades of his life to promoting Luisa’s revelations. The Vatican’s official biography of Luisa, The Sun of My Will (SunOfMyWill.com), recounts the saint’s words about Luisa:

[She] emerges to be a singular predilection of the Divine Redeemer, Jesus Our Lord, who century after century, increases ever more the wonders of His love. It seems that He wanted to form this virgin, whom He calls the littlest one He found on earth, and bereft of any education, into an instrument of a mission so sublime, that is, the triumph of the Divine Will, in conformity with what is said in the Our Father prayer^[i]… (Page 122)

Therein lies the essence of these private revelations: heralding the fulfillment of the Our Father prayer. St. Hannibal was so convinced of the authenticity of Luisa’s revelations that he personally bestowed nineteen of his own nihil obstats (he was appointed censor librorum) to them, which were all followed up with corresponding imprimaturs from the Archbishop.

St. Hannibal, however, was not the only saint who knew Luisa and endorsed her. The Vatican’s official biography of Luisa also recounts the strong support she received from St. Padre Pio:

There are countless testimonies beyond these [i.e., those recorded from Federico Abresch and Mrs. Caterina Valentina] that talk about the mutual esteem and faith Luisa and Padre Pio had in each other … Even the residents of San Giovanni Rotondo knew how much respect Padre Pio had for Luisa. (Pages 174-175)^[1]

Luisa’s life was filled with miracles rigorously scrutinized and documented by priests, Bishops, theologians, doctors, and scientists, who each ruled out any possible non-supernatural explanation. She even lived decades subsisting solely on the Holy Eucharist, consuming no other food. Her messages from Jesus are filled with prophecies that have been clearly fulfilled. (See Part Four of Thy Will Be Done for a partial overview of these.) Since her death over 75 years ago, Luisa’s legacy of holiness has only grown, and confirmations of the orthodoxy of her messages have only multiplied. Indeed, not only was she declared a Servant of God, but her holiness and orthodoxy was thereafter confirmed by her diocese (in 2005), and her cause is now proceeding well in its Vatican stage. Multiple Church-approved religious orders already existed dedicated to Luisa’s revelations (including the Benedictines of the Divine Will). Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints under Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, strongly endorsed Luisa and her revelations from Jesus in a preface he wrote for the Vatican’s aforementioned biography of her. (Considering the Cardinal’s position, if anyone alive knows what makes a saint and an authentic revelation, it is he who does!)

All this, however, is only a very brief and partial overview of the authenticity of Luisa’s revelations. Luisa’s private revelations are as authentic as they come, and we should approach the following messages understanding that fact.

***

Note: In some of the following excerpts of Jesus’ revelations to her, it must be understood that in the contexts of the messages that follow, “creation,” here as in similar literature, refers to physical creation; not to angels. Each message will be cited only with a date; this corresponds to the entry in Luisa’s diary that the excerpt is taken from, which is enough information to easily locate the original source. Please note as well that when Jesus refers to “Us” or to “We,” He is referring to the Three Persons of the Trinity.

Reiterating Biblical, Catholic, and even common-sense philosophical teaching, Jesus tells Luisa:

Creation was made for man—in it he was to be the king of all created things. (July 29^th, 1926) All created things were made for man, and man for Us. (September 24th, 1928)

We have already reviewed this point in earlier sections, but it must be restated how absurd it would be for man to be king of the universe (as indeed he is), if he is only one among multiple (even many) races of intelligent incarnate beings of whose existence he is not even aware.

In many other passages, Jesus makes it explicit to Lusia that the entire universe (not only planet earth) solely exists for the sake of the offspring of Adam, and that the creation of man constituted the only thing in the entire universe made in His Image. He tells her:

…what ardor of love was the creation of man. … shaken by Our own love, We looked at the machine of the whole universe and We gave him [man] everything as gift, constituting him king of all created things… (January 13, 1928) …there is great difference between the creation of the whole universe and the creation of man. … in the creation of man, there was not only the creative and preserving act, but the active act added to it-and of an activity ever new; and this, because man was created in Our Image and Likeness… This is why We love him [man] so much-because he is not only Our work, like all the rest of creation, but he possesses part of Our Life, in a real way; We feel in him the life of Our Love. How not to love him? (November 10, 1929) …see what order there is in the creation of the whole universe: there are heavens, stars, suns-all ordered. Much more so in creating man; Our Divine Being stretched out the order of Our Divine qualities like many heavens in the depth of his soul. (April 23, 1930) … since man was made by Us to live in Our Will, all Our acts had to serve as many little cities or nations in which man could find, by right, his Fatherland… one can say that the sun is a city, and as the soul enters Our Will, she finds this city of light …O, how happy We are, in seeing Our works-Our cities, created only for man, no longer as deserts, but populated by Our children. (March 28, 1938) The only purpose of creation was that all would fulfill my Will – not that man would do great things… (November 26, 1921) … the life of Heaven upon the earth [is the] only purpose of the Creation. (January 18, 1928)

Expounding upon what mankind’s status as the king of all creation entails, Jesus tells Luisa:

So, each created thing holds out my love to man; and if it were not so, Creation would have no purpose; and I do nothing without purpose. Everything has been made for man; but man does not recognize it, and he has turned into sorrow for Me. (January 9, 1920)

Jesus explains to Luisa that Creation—the entire material universe—would simply have no purpose without man. He even tells her that everything in the universe other than man—including the very “heavens studded with stars,” was nothing but a preparation for man:

My daughter, here is why in Creation there were so many preparations … What did We not prepare so that this feast might be one of the most solemn? Heavens studded with stars, sun radiant with light, refreshing winds, seas, … After having prepared everything, We created man, that he might celebrate, and We together with him. (July 23, 1931)

But this reality is incoherent if there are other rational incarnate creatures, as a purpose of all these things could be found in serving this other race of rational creatures. Rendering it even more clear that by “creation,” or “all things,” or any other similar reference, Jesus is most emphatically not referring only to those things within this particular planet, Jesus tells Luisa:

My daughter, I created the heavens and I centralized My love for man in the heavens; and in order to give him greater delight, I studded them with stars. I did not love the heavens, but man in the heavens, and for him I created them… [the heavens] were to serve him as pure delight… (October 29, 1926)

God created the very heavens themselves for us. He does not love the heavens! Yet, consider how blasphemous it would be to accuse God of not loving a domain that includes His own children (that is, any creature bearing His image; i.e., having a rational soul). It will not work to claim Jesus only meant He does not love the mere matter of the Heavens, but does love “aliens” therein. For that assessment would be true of earth also, yet Scripture teaches that “God so loved the world, that he sent his only son” into it. (John 3:16) Jesus loves creation simply for our sake; because the entirety of it—from each atom to each galaxy, to the entire universe, and everything in between—exists for us, and only for us. Jesus also tells Luisa:

The Eternal One looked at the heavens and remained content in seeing the immense harmonies, the communications of love which He had opened between Heaven and earth. …So, everything you see, even the most tiny little flower in the field, was one more relation between creature and Creator. (February 20, 1919) “The heavens are nothing other than an act of profound adoration of the immensity of Our Divine Being” (April 12, 1929)

As with the Bible itself, so too with this passage we see eliminated any enigma for those who would ask, “why would God create such an expanse of Heavens if not to populate it with aliens?”

The answer is simple: each created thing, has “a relation, a channel of graces, a special love” between God and man. Everything God has made tells us something about Him. The incomprehensibly large expanse of the cosmos—which we see only a tiny fraction of with the naked eye in the night sky—testifies to His omnipotence and majesty. Each new galaxy we discover reminds us of that, and silently declares that no matter how much we plumb the depths of God, there will always be more. Why did He put them there if we could only discover them in the Third Millennium? The reason is simple: God knew that, in the Third Millennium, we would need those additional reminders of His glory and beauty. There is no other reason for the existence of the heavens than this: God’s love for the human race; that is, His love for descendants of Adam and Eve, dwelling on earth.

[Luisa writes:] It seems that the Divine Volition longs for the love of Its beloved creature, to be able to find the little prop of love, upon which to lean Its great love. So, heavens, suns, winds, are nothing other than insinuating and continuous calls, to tell us: “I have anticipated you with my love; and you—do not leave Me without yours.” (October 21, 1932)

Jesus would regularly correct Luisa when she spoke incorrectly. Yet He not only lets this claim stand, but He follows up with a lengthy message of His own, confirming her sentiments. Consider, however, how wrong it would be to describe, as Luisa does here, the very “heavens” themselves—even the “suns” (stars) therein, as being “nothing other than” (i.e., existing for no other reason than) calls to “us” (earthlings) about God’s love. If rational beings dwelt therein, then those “suns” exist for them, not for us.

Humans, moreover, are the only material creatures who can love God; they are also the only material creatures who can sin. Jesus emphasizes this truth to Luisa in multiple messages:

Only the human will, as We had created it with the great gift of the free willing … might love Us and remain together with Us, to receive the operating life in Our Volition … It was the greatest honor and gift We gave. (May 12, 1934) Only the human will, if it wants to operate on its own, without the union of Ours, can break this beautiful union, this bond of inseparability among God, created things and creatures. (January 2, 1930) The most beautiful thing created by Us was the human will. Among all created things it is the most beautiful, that which resembles Us more, therefore it can be called the queen among everything, as indeed it is. (June 16, 1934)

Note that Jesus does not merely say that the “free will,” in general, is the most beautiful thing He made—as if to leave open the possibility that other incarnate creatures also have such a faculty. Instead, He indicates that only human beings can claim such an exalted state. Nothing but human beings have reason, as Jesus explicitly states in the following passage:

[Luisa writes] “I was doing my round through the whole Creation…oh, how beautiful it seemed to me! … each created thing…[veils] within itself the creative power and Will… the Sun, the heavens, the stars, the wind, the sea…” [Jesus responds:] “My daughter, look at how beautiful Our works are—pure, holy and all orderly. We made use of creation in order to form Our veils, Our vast residences; however, We held back from giving reason to them, because they were created for man, not for themselves, and therefore We reserved giving to man the capacity and reason of the whole Creation…” (September 2, 1928).

In this passage, Jesus bluntly states that only man has reason. In the “whole Creation”—that is, the entire material universe; the same passage even explicitly indicates it is referring to the stars—absolutely nothing else and no one else enjoys rationality. This is why the rational soul of man—intellect, memory, and will—is the only thing therein that keeps God company:

In creating man I said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone, let Us make another creature similar to him, who may keep him company, so that one may form the delight of the other’, I said these same words to my love before creating man: ‘I do not want to be alone, but I want the creature for my company. … With his company I will pour Myself out in love.’ This is why I made him in my likeness; and as his intelligence thinks of Me and is interested in Me, he keeps company with my wisdom, and as my thoughts keep company with his, we amuse ourselves together. If his gaze looks at Me and at created things in order to love Me, I feel the company of his gaze. (January 24, 1920)

Before creating man, we see, God “said to His love,” that it did not want to be “alone.” (This, of course, is mystical language, not a strict theological description of the Divine Nature—before creation existed, God was “infinitely perfect and blessed in Himself.” (CCC, §1)) Had aliens existed, God would not have “said” that, since He already would not have been “alone.” Further explaining why man is, as it were, “everything” to God, Jesus provides Luisa the following beautiful message on Christmas Day:

We find Ourselves in the condition of an artisan who has made his beautiful statue …..The artisan loves this statue so much that he has placed his very life in it …Such is the state the Divinity is in with regard to man… in creating the heavens, the stars, the sun, the wind, the sea, the earth, it was Our works that We issued, and the flowerings of Our beautiful qualities. Only for man was this greatest prodigy of creating the life—and the life of Our Love itself; and this is why it is said that he was created in Our Image and Likeness. And this is why We love him so much-because it is life and work that has come out of Us, and life costs more than anything. (December 25, 1928)

Only man, Jesus here teaches, harbors the Image of God. Only man.

***

Many other passages from Luisa’s revelations could be presented,^[2] but we must pass over them for the sake of space. What is included above is more than sufficient to make it clear that we are presented with a simple choice: either believe in aliens and reject Luisa, or believe in Jesus’ revelations to this Servant of God and reject aliens. The former option, however, is not remotely palatable from an authentically Catholic perspective. There has not been a single mystic in the history of the Church who has seen the verifications of authenticity that Luisa has, only to later be proven inauthentic. There is, quite simply, no chance that these revelations are anything but supernatural in o

^[1] Here I note that, unlike a certain quote regarding aliens, allegedly attributed to Padre Pio (but almost certainly counterfeit or misinterpreted) purely via hearsay from an anonymous source, what we have here is entirely different. Padre Pio’s support of Luisa is confirmed by these authoritative sources, vetted by the Vatican, based on the testimony of multiple people (whose names and identities are known), in writing. Indeed, the support is entirely undeniable, notwithstanding the attempts of some of Luisa’s critics to do precisely that.

^[2] To give just one more example, a constant and important theme in Luisa’s revelations is the spiritual practice of undertaking “The Rounds,” in which one spiritually “goes through” all that God has done – all of it – to offer it back to Him in adoration. It is quite like (but a major expansion upon) the Cantle of Daniel’s companions, wherein the Church (in her public prayer—the Divine Office) continuously prays for all that God has created to “bless the Lord.” Similar spiritual practices are found in the revelations of St. Faustina. Now, these Rounds would be deprived of their purpose if they were missing in them an entire category of beings in “the Great Chain of Creation.” Yet, despite the many descriptions of the Rounds in Luisa’s revelations, not one of them contains the slightest implication that there may be aliens. Rather, each time the Rounds are implored, undertaken, or described, their scope is identical: They include all that God has made or accomplished, namely, yet they never include any indication of, implication of, or even space for, extraterrestrials. One dialogue between Luisa and Jesus is recorded in the following entry in the Diary, “‘My Divine Jesus, I want to love You together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.’ But it seemed He was not content yet. And I: ‘I want to love You together with all the Angels and Saints.’ And He: “And with whom else?” ‘With all the pilgrim souls and unto the last creature that will exist upon earth. I want to bring You everyone and everything – even the heavens, the sun, the wind, the sea – to love You together with all.’ “ At this point, Jesus was at last content with Luisa’s description of “all things.” The passage continues: “And Jesus, all love, such that it seemed He could not contain the flames, added: “My daughter, behold my Heaven in the creature: the Sacrosanct Trinity yielding Its love in order to love Me together with her; the Angels and Saints competing in giving out their love so as to love Me together with her. This is the great act: to bring all into the All, who is God … you want to give Me everything, up to the very Adorable Trinity…and I can say: ‘I lack nothing – neither Heaven, nor my Celestial Mother, nor the cortege of the Angels and Saints. All are with Me, and all love Me.’”(October 22, 1933) It is difficult to imagine any additional superlatives Jesus or Luisa could have amassed to better convey the point that the purpose of the Rounds is to exclude absolutely nothing that God has made. Instead of seeing any implications that extraterrestrials might exist within this sphere of reality, we see only the opposite: the Rounds repeatedly treating human beings—earthlings—as the only rational incarnate creatures.

^[i] Note: the last clause is indeed St. Hannibal’s own; he includes those words in the original text. However, they are part of the abridged portion of what it is included in The Sun of My Will—

“There is only one tragedy, ultimately: not to have been a saint.”

The Catholic Defender: The Tradition of Our Lady of Hope

Tradition holds that during the Franco-Prussian War, Mary appeared to six children on January 17, 1871, in the village of Pontmain, France. She told them to pray for protection as troops approached the village and assured them that the conflict would soon come to an end. After the children and villagers prayed with their priest at the site of her appearance, the Prussian troops left the village, and one week later, the war ended. All of the Pontmain citizens who fought in the war returned safely home.

This apparition of Mary came to be known as Our Lady of Hope (also called Our Lady of Pontmain). A basilica was built in her honor in 1900, which was entrusted to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. When they came to the United States, the Oblates founded a shrine for Our Lady of Hope in Lake Champlain, New York.

The Chapel of Our Lady of Hope at the Basilica is a gift of the late Bob and Dolores Hope, in memory of Avis Townes Hope, the mother of the famed entertainer. Bronze sculptures of Mary and two angels are surrounded by white Carrara marble and Fior de Pesco marble. Carved into the façade of the altar are the words of Our Lady of Hope, “Pray my children.” The chapel features the following prayer: Detail of Our Lady of Hope Chapel

O Mary, my Mother, I kneel before you with heavy heart. The burden of my sins oppresses me. The knowledge of my weakness discourages me. I am beset by fear and temptation of every sort. Yet, I am so attached to the things of this world that instead of longing for Heaven, I am filled with dread at the thought of death. O Mother of Mercy, have pity on me in my distress. You are all-powerful with your Divine Son. He can refuse no request of your Immaculate Heart. Show yourself a true Mother to me by being my Advocate before His Throne. O Refuge of Sinners and Hope of Hopeless, to whom shall I turn if not you? Obtain for me, then, O Mother of Hope, the Grace of True Sorrow for my sins, the Gift of Perfect Resignation to God’s Holy Will, and the Courage to take up my Cross and follow Jesus. But above all I Pray, O Dearest Mother, that through your Most Powerful Intercession, my heart may be Filled with Holy Hope, so that in life’s darkest hour I may never fail to Trust in God my Saviour, but by walking in the way of His Commandments I may Merit to be United with Him, and with you in the Eternal Joys of Heaven. Amen.

A crowd gathered to pray as word quickly spread among the anxious villagers. Children saw the beautiful Lady, and gleefully pointed up to her. Adults, however, only saw three stars forming a triangle. As they prayed the Rosary, the children saw the garment’s stars multiply until it was almost entirely gold. Next, the children saw a banner unfurl beneath the Lady. Slowly, a message appeared: But pray, my children. God will hear you in time. My Son allows Himself to be touched. Upon hearing the message read aloud, the crowd spontaneously began the hymn “Mother of Hope”. As they sang, the Lady laughed and joined in the singing.

The children squealed with delight as her hands kept time with the music. When the crowd began “My Sweet Jesus,” her expression changed to profound sadness and a red Crucifix appeared in her hands, with the words “Jesus Christ” above it. Her eyes mournfully contemplated the crucifix during the hymn. As the people sang “Ave Maris Stella“, the Crucifix vanished and her smile returned, though with a touch of melancholy. Two small white crosses then appeared on her shoulders before the Lady disappeared behind a cloud. As the night’s prayers came to a close, the apparition ended. It was about nine o’clock; the phenomenon had lasted about three hours.

Joseph Barbadette, who later became a priest of the Congregation of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, recounted:

She was young and tall of stature, clad in a garment of deep blue, … Her dress was covered with brilliant gold stars. The sleeves were ample and long. She wore slippers of the same blue as the dress, ornamented with gold bows. On the head was a black veil half covering the forehead, concealing the hair and ears, and falling over the shoulders. Above this was a crown resembling a diadem, higher in front than elsewhere, and widening out at the sides. A red line encircled the crown at the middle. Her hands were small and extended toward us as in the ‘Miraculous Medal.’ Her face had the most exquisite delicacy and a smile of ineffable sweetness. The eyes, of unutterable tenderness, were fixed on us. Like a True Mother, she seemed happier in looking at us than we in contemplating.

That same evening, Prussian forces inexplicably abandoned their advance.[6] General von Schmidt of the Prussian Army, who was about to move on the city of Laval towards Pontmain, received orders from his commander not to take the city.

On the evening of 17 January 1871, the Commander of the Prussian forces, having taken up his quarters at the archiepiscopal palace of Le Mans, told Charles-Jean Fillion, bishop of that diocese: “By this time my troops are at Laval”. On the same evening, the Prussian troops in sight of Laval stopped at half-past five o’clock, about the time when the apparition first appeared above Pontmain, a few miles away. General Schmidt is reported to have said on the morning of the 18th: “We cannot go farther. Yonder, in the direction of Brittany, there is an invisible ‘Madonna‘ barring the way.”

The sudden stopping of the Prussian forces in sight of Laval, and their retirement the following morning, meant, together with the saving of Brittany, the turning back of the tide of conquering soldiery from that part of France. The war was practically at an end. On 23 January 1871, the long-hoped for armistice was signed. Soon, all thirty-eight conscripted men and boys returned home unscathed.

Pope Pius XI gave a final decision regarding the Mass and Office in honor of Our Lady of Hope of Pontmain. A final Papal Honour was given to Our Lady of Hope on 16 July 1932 by Cardinal Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII, by passing a decree from the Chapter of St. Peter’s Basilica that the statue of the Blessed Lady, Mother of Hope, be solemnly honoured with the Crown of Gold. The Lady then was Crowned in the presence of bishops, priests, and the laity by Cardinal Verdier, Archbishop of Paris on 24 July 1934

During the devastation of the Franco-Prussian War, Mary appeared on a farm to students at the nearby convent school. Mary’s message was written on a banner that unfurled from her feet: “But pray my children. God will hear you in a short time. My Son allows Himself to be moved by compassion.”

In the darkest hours of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Mary appeared to two boys (Eugene and Joseph Barbedette) as a lady dressed in a dark blue robe, sprinkled with stars, a crown on her head over a dark blue veil, and in her hands a red cross. She was surrounded by a blue and oval mandorla.

Mary’s apparition to the children had a scroll that showed changing words, such as, “But pray, my children, God will soon grant your request”. -Our Lady was described as wearing a blue robe with many golden stars. She wore a black veil with a golden crown. She was thought to be about 18 years old.

Meditation for Advent

by Pope Benedict XVI – “Seeing the Salvation of God.”

Advent is not only a time of waiting for eternity—it is also in a very special sense a time of inner joy that cannot be driven out by suffering. This can perhaps be understood best if we look closely at the inner content and meaning of our Advent practices…. The people of God have, as it were, translated Scripture into a visible form. In Psalm 96, for example, we read: Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes. In our Advent liturgy, these words have been joined to words from other psalms and the whole has been extended until we have: Mountains and hills will sing praises before God and all the trees of the wood will clap their hands, for the Lord is coming, the ruler, to an eternal kingdom. Our decorated Christmas trees are really nothing but an attempt to make these words visible. The Lord is there. Our ancestors believed this and the trees of the wood had therefore to go to meet him, bend down before him, and be a song of praise to their Lord….

Even our Christmas fare has its roots in the Church’s Advent liturgy, which echoes the wonderful words of the Old Testament: On that day the mountains will drip sweetness and the rivers will bring down milk and honey. It was in words such as these that men in the past expressed their hopes in a redeemed world…. [God] as it were distributes honey and it must therefore be true that the earth flows with it. Where he is, there can, after all, be no bitterness. In his presence, heaven and earth are in harmony and God and man are at one. Honey and all the sweet things of Christmas are the sign of this peace, concord, and joy. Christmas became the feast of giving, and in this we imitate the God who gives himself and also gives us life [and] that one Love which cannot be threatened by death or unfaithfulness or deceit.

All these elements come together in our joy that God became a Child who encourages us to trust as children trust, to give ourselves, and to let ourselves receive. It is perhaps quite difficult for us to accept this joy when we are troubled by questions and when physical illness and spiritual problems attack us and make us rebel against the God we cannot understand. But this Child is a sign of hope, and that sign is made on those who are in any way distressed. We ought to celebrate Advent by allowing the signs of this special time to penetrate freely into our hearts…and then, full of trust, accept the immeasurable goodness of the Child who made the mountains and hills sing and transformed the trees of the wood into a song of praise.

Pope Francis announced in a letter Friday that hope will be the central theme for the 2025 Jubilee Year, voicing his desire for the year to foster a greater sense of global brotherhood and solidarity with the poor, as well as care for the environment.

After two years marked by the coronavirus pandemic and the crisis left in its wake, “We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision,” the pope said in his letter.

The Jubilee “can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire,” he said. “That is why I have chosen as the Motto of the Jubilee, ‘Pilgrims of Hope.’”

Dated Feb. 11, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the letter was addressed to Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, head of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, which is tasked with organizing the Jubilee.

The first-ever “Holy Year” was instituted by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300 and was initially celebrated every 100 years. Then, following biblical tradition, it was marked every 50 years, and it was finally decided by Pope Paul II in 1490 to observe the jubilee year every 25 years, so that each person could experience one in his or her lifetime.

Jubilees, designed to be a time of conversion and increased emphasis on God’s mercy and forgiveness of sins, are marked by the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Holy Doors, present in each of the four papal basilicas in Rome, are destination points for pilgrims who travel to Rome during the Jubilee and who pass through seeking special graces and outpourings of God’s mercy.

The last Ordinary Jubilee was the Great Jubilee of 2000, celebrated by Pope John Paul II.

A new custom of calling “extraordinary” jubilees, meaning outside of the 25-year rotation, and which can last a few days to a few months, began in the 16th century. There have only been a handful of extraordinary jubilees since, the latest being the 2015-2016 Jubilee of Mercy called by Pope Francis.

The Holy Year of 2025 will be the 27th ordinary jubilee year of the Catholic Church.

“As the first twenty-five years of the new century draw to a close, we are called to enter into a season of preparation that can enable the Christian people to experience the Holy Year in all its pastoral richness,” Pope Francis said.

This will only happen, he said, “if we are capable of recovering a sense of universal fraternity and refuse to turn a blind eye to the tragedy of rampant poverty that prevents millions of men, women, young people and children from living in a manner worthy of our human dignity,” especially migrants and refugees forced to flee their homes.

“May the voices of the poor be heard throughout this time of preparation for the Jubilee, which is meant to restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone,” the pope said.

“All of us are pilgrims on this earth,” he said, and urged faithful to make a special effort to care for creation during the Jubilee, saying, “may we never fail, in the course of our sojourn, to contemplate the beauty of creation and care for our common home.”

“Growing numbers of men and women, including many young people and children, have come to realize that care for creation is an essential expression of our faith in God and our obedience to his will,” he said.

Pope Francis urged Fisichella to coordinate with local churches in both the Latin and Eastern rites in a spirit of synodality in keeping with the current Synod of Bishops dedicated to the topic, and “in order to be ever more fully a sign and instrument of unity in harmonious diversity.”

He stressed the importance of the “responsible participation” from everyone, pointing to the four apostolic constitutions of the Second Vatican Council and the major papal documents of recent decades as resources.

These documents, he said, “will continue to provide direction and guidance to God’s holy people, so that it can press forward in its mission of bringing the joyful proclamation of the Gospel to everyone.”

Francis said a Bull of Indiction outlining the guidelines for the celebration of the Jubilee of 2025 will be issued “in due course.”

In the lead-up, the pope asked that the year 2024 be devoted to prayer, “above all else, to renew our desire to be in the presence of the Lord, to listen to him and to adore him.”

With preparations for the 2025 Jubilee just getting underway, there are few details regarding the specifics of how the holy year will be observed. However, Pope Francis implemented several novelties for his extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that could also be featured as part of the 2025 event.

Among other things, he allowed dioceses and shrines to designate holy doors that pilgrims could pass through without having to travel to Rome and allowed all priests to absolve the sin of abortion, which could previously only be absolved with permission from the local bishop.

Francis also allowed priests in the schismatic Society of Pope Pius X to validly hear confessions in the Catholic Church, and he widened indulgences – the full remission of the temporal consequences of a person’s sins after they have been absolved – available to the faithful during the holy year.

He also instituted the Missionaries of Mercy, a ministry in which the priests who assume the role are able to freely travel around hearing confessions, giving talks, and offering special guidance related to the topic of God’s mercy.