Salt Lake City Catholics celebrate Jubilee year with pilgrimages, Mass, confession

CV NEWS FEED // Salt Lake City Catholics are celebrating the Jubilee Year of 2025 beginning with two masses at the Cathedral of the Madeleine and a procession, taking place on Dec. 29 when Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of the Archbasilica of St John Lateran.

Intermountain Catholic reports the celebrations will include a special pilgrim cross for veneration that will be carried throughout the city. After that, the cross will be near the altar at the Cathedral of the Madeleine for the entire Jubilee year. 

Several churches throughout the diocese have been chosen as pilgrim sites: St. George Catholic Church in St. George, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Orem, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ogden, and Notre Dame de Lourdes Catholic Church in Price.

Intermountain Catholic explains that Catholics are encouraged to visit one of these churches as a pilgrimage and receive the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist. They are also encouraged to study Scripture, pray, and perform works of mercy.

“We want to encourage our parishioners, our students in our schools, our families, to journey to these sites, journey to at least one of them during the course of the year, ideally, and even better, visit them all,” said Fr. John Evans, vicar general of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. 

Fr. Evans also encouraged Catholics to attend Mass at the pilgrimage sites throughout the year, adding, “spend time not praying only for oneself, but for others that are in need of hope, recognizing where the redemptive work of God is needed, where the healing of God is needed.”

Those who participate in the activities planned for the Holy Year can receive a plenary indulgence if they fulfill the other requirements of being free from an attachment to sin, making a sacramental confession, receiving Holy Communion, and praying for the Holy Father.