Archbishop Dabula Mpako: As pilgrims in the journey of faith, we are called to maintain our hope
By Kati Dijane – The Archdiocese of Pretoria was among some of the dioceses in Southern Africa to officially launch the Jubilee Year 2025 at the packed Sacred Heart Cathedral in Pretoria’s bustling CBD on December 29.
Representatives of the six deaneries of the archdiocese, including the youth commission and priests, as well as Emeritus Archbishop William Slattery, heeded the call from Archbishop Dabula Mpako, and Bishop Masilo John Selemela, to be a part of this historic event that takes place every 25 years in the Catholic Church. At the start of the Holy Mass, Archbishop Mpako lit the Jubilee Year candle and had his pastoral letter read by Father Patrick Rakeketsi CSS to kick-start the Jubilee Year’s programme in the archdiocese. In the letter, the archbishop mentioned that the Jubilee is a special year of forgiveness and reconciliation in which people are invited to amend their relationship with God and one another.
“As pilgrims in the journey of faith, we are called to maintain our hope, despite the challenges and difficulties encountered in our lives and in the world,” the letter continued, adding that the Holy Father, in the papal bull, suggested several ways to bring Christ and his message of hope to the world. These included working for peace and bringing an end to conflict, promoting human life, sowing amnesty to prisons, upholding the dignity of migrants, healing the sick and accompanying the elderly.
The archbishop, in his letter, called upon the faithful in his archdiocese to enthusiastically embrace this call by the Holy Father and participate fully in this year-long celebration, adding that the deepest meaning of the Jubilee is always the personal experience of God’s forgiveness and mercy in our conversion. Archbishop Mpako has also established a joint Jubilee Year committee to organise and supervise different activities that will take place throughout the year as part of the celebration of the Jubilee. He also added that during the year, there will be one diocesan event in which every faithful in the archdiocese will come together to observe this special occasion. He said that the Jubilee Year prayer will be recited at all Sunday Masses at the end of the prayers of the faithful and also called upon all sodalities and associations in the archdiocese to include in their year plans an activity or event celebrating the Jubilee Year.
Other symbols of the Jubilee Year, including the icon of our Lady, as well as the pilgrimage cross, were also introduced by Father Alfred Bwana, who mentioned that the cross, which had the Jubilee logo that showed four pilgrims holding on to the cross with a shape of an anchor at the bottom, is meant to stabilise our hope against the torrents of despondency.
In his homily, Bishop Selemela mentioned that the Holy Father has called all of us to open our souls to the working of the Holy Spirit to soften the hardness of our hearts and for enemies to be reconciled. The bishop also added that as a family, we are called to give each other hope by mending our relationships and bandaging the wounds of those we encounter on the way, like the Good Samaritan. He reminded the faithful of the Gospel of John (10:9-11): “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” that was read on Christmas Eve, during the opening of the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He added that the symbolism of the door reminds us that Jesus is the door to our salvation, our happiness and our peace, and that only Jesus is the key that opens us to the fountain of God’s mercy. “In this sense, a call to come back to God makes sense because we all desire life in abundance, which only Jesus can give. Without Jesus, our lives are empty, meaningless and with no direction.”
Emphasising the importance of this celebration, the bishop quoted Pope Francis’ Bull of Indiction, saying, “For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the door of our salvation, whom the church is charged to proclaim always and everywhere.”
He added that the Jubilee is an opportune moment for people to proclaim hope to those drowning in hopelessness and sorrow. He also mentioned that our participation in the Jubilee Year will earn us an indulgence, another way in which God, through the church, offers us a second chance, no matter our conditions in life. He explained that an indulgence is a remission of temporal punishment due to sin, which can be obtained through specific acts of faith, such as prayer, acts of charity and participation in the sacraments. The granting of indulgences, he noted, is rooted in the church’s authority believed to be derived from Christ and bestowed upon the apostles. He further explained that although there are a number of indulgences, the one we are offered during this Jubilee Year is the plenary indulgence, which removes all temporal punishment, provided we perform prescribed acts, such as prayer, pilgrimages and the sacrament of reconciliation. He concluded the homily by referring to Pope Paul VI (1897-1978), who once said that food and warmth are not enough in themselves; people need something more. “They need our presence, our time and our love. They need to be reassured that they are not forgotten, and this is how this Jubilee calls us to accompany others on their journey.”
Before the conclusion of the Mass, the bishops handed the Jubilee candles to deans of the six deaneries of the archdiocese, who then passed them on to their parishioners.
With the Jubilee Year 2025 officially launched in Pretoria’s archdiocese, the archbishop invited Catholics in Southern Africa to embark on this special journey of being pilgrims of hope despite the challenges we face and rekindle the fire of courage that comes from our faith in Jesus.
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