Archbishop leads solemn closing of the Jubilee Year of Hope in the Archdiocese of Detroit on the Feast of the Holy Family
DETROIT — Days before Pope Leo XIV closes the Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, concluding the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, Detroit Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger led the local Church in giving thanks for the graces of the jubilee year.
Archbishop Weisenburger commemorated the solemn closing of the Jubilee Year of Hope in the Archdiocese of Detroit during a special Mass on Dec. 28 at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
While the jubilee is ending, the Church continues to journey in hope in 2026 and beyond, the archbishop said.
Archbishop Weisenburger reflected upon the many changes that have taken place since the start of the jubilee year, including his own appointment as archbishop of Detroit in February.
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“In this celebration of the conclusion of the Jubilee Year of Hope, we join with others all around the world,” Archbishop Weisenburger said to begin his homily. “I was in a different state, a different place, a different diocese when this started. Hope has, in so many respects, I feel, been lived out in my life during this time. And as we join with the rest of the universal Church in bringing it to a conclusion, I think we recognize that hope is not ended, but hope has in so many ways been restored, sustained and fulfilled.
“Let us continue for the rest of our years on this trajectory, this path given to us by Pope Francis and then continued under Pope Leo, recognizing that to be followers of Christ is always and everywhere to be a people of hope,” the archbishop said.
The Rite of Closing of the Jubilee Year included special blessings and invocations in the liturgy to mark the end of the jubilee year.
Tying the jubilee's closing to the Feast of the Holy Family, which the Church celebrates on the Sunday after Christmas, Archbishop Weisenburger called for the faithful to be ever mindful of the needs of God's extended family.
“Brothers and sisters, we have experienced together the jubilee year,” Archbishop Weisenburger said after the opening hymn. “As a single people we have offered our praise, thanksgiving, and supplication to God, in union with those who are voiceless in the world but whom the Father hears and welcomes as beloved sons and daughters: the sick, the aged, the prisoners, the poor.”
In his homily, the archbishop asked the faithful to reflect upon the particular graces they have received during the jubilee year and how those graces can be carried into the new year.
The archbishop then reflected upon the Holy Family, whose flight into Egypt to escape Herod's wrath mirrors in many ways the flight of 117 million people today escaping persecution, violence, poverty, famine and war.
"Joseph and Mary must flee to a far-away land, a foreign culture — whatever it takes to keep the child safe — and thus, they become migrants. I won't belabor the point, but I fear I must confront myself and all of us with some sobering facts about the Holy Family found in the world today," Archbishop Weisenburger said.
In addition to those forced to flee, according to the United Nations, there are 67 million people displaced within their own countries, 8.5 million asylum seekers, and an additional 4.5 million people who are stateless, with no nationality or country where they have rights, he said.
"It's sobering to think that in the world today, one of every 70 people on the face of earth has been forced to flee," the archbishop said. "They've found themselves bonded to Jesus, Mary and Joseph as they too sought to stay alive, most especially to keep a child alive."
Beginning with St. John Paul II, each of the last four popes "has urged us in celebrating the Holy Family to recognize them in the migrant, the immigrant and those seeking refuge today," he added.
Even during times of grief or anxiety, Archbishop Weisenburger said the faithful and families of all stripes can look to the example of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as a source of intervention, grace, and hope.
“The Feast of the Holy Family is a time to remember with great joy and hope Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and the love that bonded them so perfectly together,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “But it’s also a time to seek their intervention and graces for our families today — those families with whom we share our daily lives, and that greater family around the world, especially those who are suffering, but with whom we are bounded whenever we do His will.”
The Mass concluded with a special blessing that called to mind graces made available throughout the jubilee year, including the various pilgrimage sites throughout the area.
“Brothers and sisters, at the conclusion of the jubilee year, we join our voices with the song of the world Church that today offers its thanksgiving to God for the gift of His indulgence,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “Through the sacraments, pilgrimage, prayer and charity, we have had an intense experience of the divine mercy: the Lord has washed away our sins and filled us with His grace. During this year, in the moment of the liturgical cycle, we have entered fully into the mystery of Christ in faith, hope, and love.”
Many of the faithful gathered at the cathedral had experienced pilgrimages to some of the 12 jubilee pilgrimage sites throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit, including Eileen McGuire of St. Basil the Great Parish in South Haven in the Diocese of Kalamazoo, who traveled to the cathedral for the closing Mass.
“In the Jubilee Year of Hope, my husband and I all year have been going to various places, visiting relatives and going on pilgrimages during our visits,” McGuire told Detroit Catholic. “We’re actually from South Haven, but I grew up here, and while visiting family we thought to come to the cathedral. It’s just a special grace that we wanted to avail ourselves to share with our family.”
The McGuires also visited the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak to venerate the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, and Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel on the campus of Madonna University in Livonia during the jubilee year, she said.
“This year has been a grace for us, especially with us starting to go to confession on regular basis and really living life intentionally; it has changed us,” McGuire said. “My husband said we need to continue to do this next year, even though the Jubilee Year of Hope is completed.”
Elizabeth Glennon of St. Clement Parish in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood was visiting family in Bloomfield Hills with her husband and was invited by her aunt and uncle to come to the cathedral.
“This is my first time at the cathedral, and it’s beautiful,” Glennon said. “I’m really impressed with all the relics, too. Our church in Chicago, St. Clement, is also a jubilee church, and my husband’s parents’ church, St. Michael in Orland Park, is also a jubilee church in the Archdiocese of Chicago, so we’ve been going to all the sites.”
Glennon reflected on the Jubilee Year of Hope and the graces she and her community have received — not the least of which was the election of a pope from her own diocese.
“Reflecting on the transition from Pope Francis to Pope Leo, I think that brought a lot of joy and hope to the Church,” Glennon said. “My hope is that it can continue for years to come, and particularly, in Chicago, where we’re from. We’re very proud of Pope Leo since he’s also from Chicago, so I think that brought a lot of hope to our city as well, and I think just the U.S. as whole since we have one of our own as pope.”
