Rome’s Jubilee has arrived!
And our Bittersweet Moments are back! (And you thought Christmas was over.)
On this short-but-sweet midweek mini-episode, Tiffany explains the history and origins of this very Roman and VERY Catholic event, why it’s so important, and what to do if you want to take part in this historic pilgrimage.
You can listen right here, or find the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and elsewhere.
Related Episodes:
Episode 485: A Night at the Vatican
Bittersweet Moment #216: The Route of the Seven Churches
Bittersweet Moment #212: Behind the Scenes at the Vatican
Bittersweet Moment #189: Baptized by the Pope
Bittersweet Moment #93: ItalyGate: Vatican Blackout Conspiracy Theory
Bittersweet Moment #68: Outside the Vatican
Bittersweet Moment #11: VATICAN
Five key takeaways from the episode:
- The Bittersweet Life podcast is bringing back mini-episodes called “Bittersweet Moments” hosted by Tiffany Parks, focusing on aspects of Rome and Italy.
- The 2025 Jubilee Year in Rome, also known as the Holy Year, is a time when Catholics visit Rome to receive plenary indulgences, which are believed to reduce time in purgatory.
- The Jubilee tradition began in 1300 and now occurs every 25 years, with the current one starting on Christmas Eve 2024.
- During Jubilee Years, Rome is spruced up and sees an influx of pilgrims and tourists, leading to increased business opportunities.
- The hosts are offering a small group tour called “Bittersweet Life Rome Adventure” in October 2025, promising to show visitors the best of Rome while avoiding crowds during this historic time.
Full Episode Transcript:
This is a Bittersweet Moment with Tiffany Parks.
Hello and welcome to The Bittersweet Life. I’m Tiffany Parks and this is your midweek Bittersweet Moment.
That’s right. After a hiatus of over a year, Katy and I have decided to bring back our mini episodes and they will be coming out every other week and, and they will be hosted by me and I’ll be talking about some aspect or site or a little bit of history of Rome or Italy in general. So we hope that you enjoy these and do let us know if you have any feedback at all. We always love hearing from you.
Now, I thought I’d talk today a little bit about the Jubilee year that is currently happening here in Rome. The 2025 Jubilee was kicked off on Christmas Eve night by Pope Francis the First while he was knocking down the wall of the holy door of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Now, a lot of people have asked me, what is the Jubilee year? Is it a celebration? Is it an anniversary? Is it. What in the world is this Jubilee? You might have also heard it called the Holy Year. It is the same thing. The words are interchangeable. And what jubilee is, is a year in which Catholics are invited to visit Rome and to partake in many different types of pilgrimages. And by doing so, their aim is to receive plenary indulgence. That is what the Jubilee is at its very, very basic level.
There are lots of celebrations during Jubilee Year. There are many events that wouldn’t ordinarily be going on, as Katy and I have talked about. They spiff up the city and get everything shiny and new so that the city is at its brightest and most beautiful.
But at its basest level, the Jubilee year is about indulgence. It’s about washing away your past sins so that you can skip purgatory. Basically, that’s what it is. Catholics believe that even if you’ve been forgiven for your sins and have done penance, you. You still have to spend a certain amount of time in purgatory before you are able to go on to heaven. And plenary indulgences, which only the Pope is allowed to set, they shorten your time in purgatory some. They say that there are certain types of indulgences that completely eliminate purgatory. But I’ve been doing a little bit of digging and that doesn’t quite seem to be the case. So generally speaking, an indulgence is given for a sin that you have recently confessed, maybe in the last 20 days or in the 20 days after. So apparently it’s something that is specific. It’s one specific sin. And again, just in case you’re thinking of coming to Rome because you did something bad and you want, you don’t want to go to purgatory, you have to have completely left behind whatever way of life that type, that sin, quote, unquote, sin comes from. So there are lots of caveats. There are lots of boxes that you have to check. It’s not quite as simple as walking through the holy doors of St. Peter’s but that is in fact one of the ways. There are four papal basilicas in Rome. Visiting any of these four basilicas will get you a plenary indulgence. Walking through the holy doors, praying in any church in Rome, and even just coming to Rome, making a pilgrimage to Rome for the purpose of being there during the Jubilee will earn its own plenary indulgence. And you’re allowed to get two indulgences per day. So apparently these indulgences can really stack up.
The jubilee year began in Rome in the year 1300. It actually comes from a much, much earlier Hebrew tradition, which is where the word jubilee comes from. It actually comes from a word, a Hebrew word that means the ram’s horn trumpet. Because this trumpet was played at the beginning of a jubilee year in ancient Israel, which is a year every 50 years when slaves were emancipated. So it really, there is really a connection there between this idea of someone who is not free being emancipated and someone who is living under sin, being liberated from that sin. So I can really see the connection there. It starts in 1300. That’s the first Roman Catholic jubilee year ever to, ever to occur. And it was originally meant to be every 100 years. So the second Jubilee year was in 1400, and the Pope at that time said, no, let’s do it every 50 years. So then there was another Jubilee year in 1450, and then by 1500 they say, you know what, let’s do this every 25 years. And it’s a bit of a joke in Rome that the Jubilee year is kind of, I mean, for more cynical people, that the point of the jubilee year is really just to get business from pilgrims and from tourists, get even more business than usual. And one of my favorite, all time favorite quotes about the Jubilee year is by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Now, F. Scott Fitzgerald didn’t like Rome at the best of times. He really was not a fan of the city. He came to Rome at the very tail end of 1924. And then, of course, stayed into the Holy Year. And he wrote, Only one year in every 25 is Holy Year. And we had blundered right into it. To the Roman businessman, Holy Year is that period when he counts on making enough profit out of foreign pilgrims to enable him to rest for 25 years more. A host of speculators, army officers, black-handers, waiters, mule drivers, morticians, and princes of the blood round up every edifice that can be disguised as an apartment house and wait for the Americans. And I think this is hilarious because it seems that so little has changed. And even as I speak, there are so many apartments up on Airbnb, hoping to take advantage of the extra influx of pilgrims here in Rome during Holy Year.
Visit Rome during the jubilee in 2025
Whether you are planning a trip to Rome during Holy Year as a pilgrim or whether you are just coming for tourism, I think I can safely say that it will be an amazing experience. Rome during a Holy Year is a truly historic time. It only happens every 25 years, and it’s been going on for over 700 years. Most people don’t get to experience Rome during a Holy Year. It’s a time in which not only is the city looking its best, more beautiful even, than it usually is, with all of the restored monuments and the new pedestrian streets and the rearranged piazzas that really show the city at its best, but it’s also just a historic and fascinating time to be in the city.
And if you come with us, then you can be sure that we will help you avoid the crowds. Katy and I are hosting our Bittersweet Life Rome Adventure once again in October 2025. We’re taking a very small and intimate group of our listeners. We’re capping the group at 16 people this year, possibly even fewer, and we will be showing you around this amazing city. We know all the secret sites, we know all the best places. We know how to avoid the crowds. And we really hope that you will join us this year. If you’d like more information about that trip, which is happening in the first full week of October, then get in touch with us either by email at bittersweetlifepodcast@gmail.com or just visit our website, www.thebittersweetlife.net and you can find all of the information there. We hope you enjoyed this Bittersweet Moment. Join us again. Bye.
