A Letter from Bishop O'Connell

TO THE CLERGY, CONSECRATED RELIGIOUS AND LAY FAITHFUL
OF THE DIOCESE OF TRENTON,

It is in a spirit of joy that the entire Diocese of Trenton joins with the Church throughout
the world in celebrating 2025 as a Holy Jubilee Year announced by our Holy Father
Pope Francis on May 9, 2024. He has chosen as a theme for the Holy Year “Hope
Does Not Disappoint” from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans 5:5. Pope Francis
observed “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 (Pope Francis, “Spes non confundit,” Bull of Indiction of the
Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025, May 9, 2024).

Beginning with the celebrations of Mass at the Cathedral on Saturday, December 28
and at the Co-Cathedral on Sunday, December 29, 2025, I will solemnly open the
Jubilee Year for the full participation of the clergy, consecrated religious and lay faithful
of the Diocese of Trenton as “pilgrims of hope.”

Throughout the past several months, I have designated a committee to meet under the
chairmanship of Rev. Msgr. Sam Sirianni, rector of the Co-Cathedral, to create spiritual
opportunities, events and celebrations throughout the four counties of the Diocese for
the Jubilee Year. While individual parishes and organizations are free to celebrate the
Jubilee Year in their own unique ways, they are also especially encouraged to
participate in Diocesan wide celebrations mentioned in this booklet or announced
throughout the year in Diocesan publications, websites and social media.

As our Holy Father has decreed, “The coming Jubilee will thus be a Holy Year marked
by the hope that does not fade, our hope in God. … Let us even now be drawn to this
hope (Pope Francis, Bull of Indiction, 25).