December 17, 2025 // Pope Leo XIV

‘Hope Does Not Disappoint:’ A Jubilee to Remember

OSV NEWS

(OSV News) – In his papal bull proclaiming the Jubilee Year, the late Pope Francis emphasized the theme of hope, a much-needed virtue in a time of uncertainty, war, and tribulation.

Yet in Spes Non Confundit (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”), the pope unknowingly described what many Catholics would feel in the year to come.

“Everyone knows what it is to hope. In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring,” he wrote.

In 2024, the pope’s health was already a cause for concern due to a persistent flu at the beginning of the year, as well as limited mobility that required the use of a cane and a wheelchair.

While the intense monthly schedule of Jubilee events was worrisome, there was still the hope that the ailing pontiff would be able to participate.

However, those hopes were dashed once his health took a turn for the worse in February, and on April 21, just one day after delivering what would be his final Easter Sunday urbi et orbi blessing, Pope Francis died.

For Archbishop Rino Fisichella, organizer of the Jubilee 2025 events and pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, the pope’s death “created a silence that was felt in the streets of Rome and the world, as well as in every Christian community.”

In an interview via email on December 3, Archbishop Fisichella told OSV News that it was in those days of mourning that “the motto of the Jubilee took on a different light.”

“The faithful understood that Christian hope is not a sentiment but a promise. I saw people crossing the Holy Door with tears in their eyes and yet with a new inner strength,” he said.

Nevertheless, Archbishop Fisichella said, “the machine did not stop.”

For both Archbishop Fisichella and Alessandro Gisotti, deputy editorial director of Vatican Media, the death of Pope Francis and the conclave and election of Pope Leo XIV did not stop the Jubilee but instead redefined it.

“The death of Francis and the election of Leo had, in a way, restarted the Jubilee in terms of attendance,” Gisotti noted.

Despite the demanding schedule, the archbishop added, “Pope Leo XIV accepted the calendar without fear and, from the beginning, chose to maintain the programmed Jubilee commitments.”

“This allowed for stability and offered a true continuity that is evident to all, given the incredible numbers of pilgrims,” he added.

This was most evident at the Jubilee of Youth in Rome, which drew an estimated 1 million young people from around the world.

Like many young Catholics, Joey Pfeiffer, a 17-year-old from Miami, was at a crucial point in his life and trying to discover his own sense of faith. For Pfeiffer, attending the Jubilee of Youth, meeting with Catholics his age, and witnessing their joy despite facing similar doubts, helped him build “a foundation in my faith.”

“I saw all these people so filled with spirit and so alive about these different experiences that they’re going through,” he told OSV News. “And I feel like it helped me create a sense of security, knowing that God was there because I saw it in these different people.”

In December of 2024, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s, marking the beginning of the Jubilee. The task of closing that door now falls to his successor, Pope Leo XIV.

Gisotti told OSV News that Pope Leo is continuing “that spirit of hope desired by Pope Francis” and that his experience as a missionary “capable of speaking to everyone” brings “an extraordinary international dimension to his papacy.”

For Archbishop Fisichella, the fact that Pope Francis would not be the one to end the Jubilee of Hope is one of “profound symbolic value.”

“Let this unfinished gesture become an invitation for every believer: The mission of the Church never closes,” Archbishop Fisichella said.

The message he believes Pope Leo will give at the closing of the Jubilee Year will entrust the faithful with bringing “hope, peace, and communion into their own homes.”

“Crossing the Holy Door means assuming the responsibility to bring hope where it is missing,” he said.

Archbishop Fisichella told OSV News that the Holy Year brought the “dimension of the pilgrimage back to the center” and that among the fruits of the Jubilee that “will accompany the Church in the coming decade” is the “rediscovery of personal responsibility in the Faith that is strengthened by hope.”

“The ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ return to their dioceses with a stronger sense of belonging and, above all, with the awareness that daily witness is the first place of evangelization,” he said.