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Bishop Koenig designates the jubilee sites in the Diocese of Wilmington during the ordinary jubilee year 2025

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Jan. 24 Dialog

DECREE

Designating the Jubilee Sites in the Diocese of Wilmington During the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY. AMEN.

Whereas His Holiness Pope Francis has determined that “Now the time has come for a new Jubilee, when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ.” (Spes non confundit, no. 6);

Whereas the Jubilee is celebrated principally in Rome, nonetheless, the Holy Father has expressed his desire that those who are unable to travel to Rome might still be able to experience the graces of the Jubilee Year in their local dioceses (ibid., no. 1);

Whereas the Holy Father has highlighted that the gift of the Jubilee Indulgence is “a way of discovering the unlimited nature of God’s mercy.” and noted that “Not by chance, for the ancients, the terms ‘mercy’ and ‘indulgence’ were interchangeable, as expressions of the fullness of God’s forgiveness, which knows no bounds.” (ibid., no. 23);

Whereas the Apostolic Penitentiary has issued norms for obtaining and rendering spiritually fruitful the practice of the Jubilee Indulgence by its Decree on the Granting of the indulgence during the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025 called by His Holiness Pope Francis; and

Therefore, I, the Most Reverend William E. Koenig, d.d., by the Grace of God and favor of the Apostolic See, Bishop of Wilmington, do hereby designate the Cathedral of Saint Peter and the following chapels of the diocese as Jubilee sites for pilgrimages and pious visits within the Diocese of Wilmington for the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025. The chapels for pious visits are the perpetual adoration chapels of Holy Cross, Dover; Immaculate Heart of Mary, Wilmington; Saint Ann, Wilmington; and Saint Jude the Apostle, Lewes as well as the chapels of Saint Christopher, Chester, and Saint Francis de Sales, Salisbury.

During the local church’s observance of the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025, that is until December 28, 2025, by visiting the Jubilee sites of the Diocese of Wilmington, “all the faithful, who are truly repentant and free from any affection for sin, who are moved by a spirit of charity and who, during the Holy Year, purified through the sacrament of penance and refreshed by Holy Communion, pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, will be able to obtain from the treasury of the Church a plenary indulgence, with remission and forgiveness of all their sins.” This can also be applied in suffrage to the souls in Purgatory. (Apostolic Penitentiary, Decree)

If a member of the faithful makes a pilgrimage to one of the above mentioned Jubilee sites of the Diocese of Wilmington, they may gain the Jubilee Indulgence by devoutly participating in Holy Mass or any of the following: a celebration of the Word of God; the Liturgy of the Hours (Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer); the Via Crucis; the Rosary; the recitation of the Akathist hymn; or a penitential celebration that includes individual confessions.

Bishop Koenig

If a member of the faithful makes a pious visit to one of the above mentioned Jubilee sites of the Diocese of Wilmington, they can obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if, individually or in a group, they devoutly visit any Jubilee site and there, for a suitable period of time, engage in Eucharistic adoration and meditation, concluding with the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, and invocations to Mary, the Mother of God, so that in this Holy Year everyone “will come to know the closeness of Mary, the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children.” (Spes non confundit, 24)

The Jubilee Indulgence may also be acquired with the works of mercy and penance indicated by the Apostolic Penitentiary: participation in popular missions, spiritual exercises or training meetings on the texts of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church; corporal and spiritual works of mercy; visits for an appropriate time to brothers and sisters who are in need or difficulty (the sick, prisoners, elderly people in solitude, the disabled, etc.); works of penance (particularly on Fridays); and works of a religious or social nature.

A plenary indulgence can be acquired only once in the course of a day. However, the faithful who have carried out an act of charity on behalf of the souls in Purgatory, if they receive Holy Communion a second time that day during a eucharistic celebration, can obtain the plenary Jubilee Indulgence twice on the same day, applicable only to the deceased.

The faithful who are truly repentant of sin but who cannot participate in the various solemn celebrations, pilgrimages and pious visits for serious reasons (especially cloistered nuns and monks, but also the elderly, the sick, prisoners, and those who, through their work in hospitals or other care facilities, provide continuous service to the sick), can obtain the Jubilee Indulgence, under the same conditions if, united in spirit with the faithful taking part in person, (especially when the words of the Supreme Pontiff or the diocesan Bishop are transmitted through the various means of communication), they recite the Our Father, the Profession of Faith in any approved form, and other prayers in conformity with the objectives of the Holy Year, in their homes or wherever they are confined (e.g. in the chapel of the monastery, hospital, nursing home, prison…) offering up their sufferings or the hardships of their lives.

This Decree is effective immediately and is to be communicated to the faithful of the Diocese of Wilmington by publication in The Dialog and on the diocesan webpage.
Given at the diocesan Chancery, in Wilmington, on January 24, 2025, the feast of Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, the patron of the Diocese of Wilmington.

 

Most Reverend William E. Koenig, d.d.
Bishop of Wilmington