Jubilee 2025, today's Christmas message from Pope Francis and 'Urbi et Orbi' blessing

After the opening of the Holy Door yesterday, 24 December (PHOTO – VIDEO), today Pope Francis pronounced the Christmas message with the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing from the external loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. “Let the weapons be silent in the tormented Ukraine and in the Middle East”, was the pontiff's appeal. Tomorrow, at 9am, the pontiff will go to the Rebibbia prison, while at midday he will lead the Marian prayer of the Angelus (ALL NEWS ON THE JUBILEE).

The appeal for peace

“Let the weapons be silent in the tormented Ukraine! Have the audacity to open the door to

negotiations and gestures of dialogue and meeting, to arrive at a just and lasting peace”, said the Pope in the Urbi et Orbi message. Bergoglio then asked for peace to

the Holy Land: “Let the weapons be silent in the Middle East! With my eyes fixed on the cradle of Bethlehem, I turn my thoughts to the Christian communities in Israel and Palestine, in particular to the dear community of Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is very serious. Cease the fire, let the hostages be freed and help the population exhausted by hunger and war”.

“Forgiving debts to the poorest countries”

Then a passage also on the Jubilee: “Let it be an opportunity to break down all walls of separation: the ideological ones, which often mark political life, and also the physical ones”. The event, for Bergoglio, must also be “an opportunity to forgive debts, especially those that burden the poorest countries”.

Christmas mass

The 2025 Jubilee began yesterday with the opening of the Holy Door: the rite began at 6.40 pm. Then the Christmas mass. “With the opening of the Holy Door we have begun a new Jubilee: each of us can enter into the mystery of this announcement of grace”, said the pontiff. “This is the night in which the door of hope opened wide on the world; this is the night in which God says to each one: there is hope for you too. There is hope for each of us”. And he added: “There are many desolations in this world, think of wars, of children being machine-gunned, of bombs on schools and hospitals.”

Tomorrow's program

As mentioned, on Thursday 26 December, at 9 am, Pope Francis will go to the prison of Rebibbia, in Rome, to preside over the mass with the opening rite of the Holy Door, so as to offer prisoners “a symbol that invites them to look to the future with hope and a renewed commitment to life”. When he returns to the Vatican, the Pope will lead the Marian prayer of the Angelus at midday, on the feast of Saint Stephen the protomartyr.

The dates of the Jubilee

The ordinary Jubilee 2025 will end on Epiphany 2026. The last one was that of 2000, with Pope Saint John Paul II. The first in history was promulgated by Boniface VIII in 1300. In 2015 Bergoglio himself proclaimed the extraordinary Jubilee of mercy. Over 32 million people are expected for the event.