Is 2026 the Year of Something? On to the next holy year or jubilee

Wrapping up the Jubilee Year 2025, with its theme centered on hope (Pilgrims of Hope) such that it has been called the Year of Hope, has most of us asking: What's next?

There is already one clear answer to that question. The 2,000th anniversary of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus is coming soon-ish: in 2033.

(Christ traditionally is held to have died at age 33, so if we consider the calendar years to have started at his birth with the switch from AD to BC, then 2033 will be the 2,000th anniversary. Calendars have been updated since then, but the anniversary will still be celebrated that year.)

The year 2033 will be a holy year of jubilee focused on an anniversary, as was 1983 under John Paul II, when we celebrated the 1,950th anniversary.

We'll say more about 2033 in a bit.

A jubilee is "ordinary" when it falls in a set period of years, currently every 25 years.

A jubilee is "extraordinary" when it is proclaimed for some outstanding event. We'll get to some of those soon.

(There are also jubilees linked to cities, and special local jubilees, usually for saints.)

There have been 26 "ordinary" jubilees since the Church started celebrating them more regularly in the year 1300, under Pope Boniface VIII. Each century has four ordinary jubilees.

(Jubilees actually go back to Biblical times, but for the Church, they started being regular events in 1300.)

The ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2000 was an especially big deal. It was the first Holy Year to mark the turn of a millennium, and the turn of the millennium was obviously of great interest also in the secular world.

John Paul II led the Church in preparing for and celebrating the Great Jubilee Year 2000, and to do so, he designated themes for the years that led up to it.

Picking Catholics' favorite number of three, he chose the three years previous to the Jubilee to focus on the three persons of the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), and the three theological virtues (faith, hope, charity).

Those three preparatory years (1997, 1998, 1999) were not jubilees, but as the Pope gave the faithful a focus with the themes, they were special holy years.

Holy years dedicated to a special theme are popular; many of us remember several of them.

In 1987, Pope John Paul II proclaimed a Marian year.

And 1994, the year that he wrote Tertio Millennio Adveniente, on preparing for the Year 2000, was celebrated as a Year of the Family.

Often holy years have been linked to anniversaries.

Pope Benedict XVI declared a year dedicated to St. Paul, beginning on June 28, 2008, the eve of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and continuing through that feast day the next year. That holy year marked the 2,000th anniversary of the apostle's birth and gave the Church a chance to focus on Paul's many Letters in the Bible.

The Year of St. Paul gave way to the Year for Priests (June 2009 to June 2010), which marked the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney, patron of priests.

And 10 years after the promulgation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, itself timed to coincide with 40 years after the close of Vatican II, Pope Benedict XVI designated a Year of Faith. It was marked from October 2012 to November 2013, and gave Catholics a chance to go deeper in what we believe.

Some special years have been especially linked to synods of bishops on the same theme.

Benedict noted that the Synod on the Eucharist was prepared for with "the Year of the Eucharist which John Paul II had, with great foresight, wanted the whole Church to celebrate. That year, which began with the International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara in October 2004, ended on 23 October 2005, at the conclusion of the XI Synodal Assembly, with the canonization of five saints particularly distinguished for their eucharistic piety."

In 2020, Pope Francis declared the Year of the Word of God, coinciding with the 1,600th anniversary of St. Jerome's death -- Jerome is most famous for having translated the Bible. That year left a mark on Church liturgy because in leading up to it, on Jerome's feast day (September 30), Francis established Word of God Sunday. That is celebrated on the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, meaning it follows right after the Christmas season and the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

At the end of that year, we went into the Year of St. Joseph, from December 8, 2020, to December 8, 2021, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of St. Joseph being named Patron of the Universal Church.

Sometimes a holy year is characterized by smaller or more specific celebrations. For example, Pope Francis named a Year of the Amoris Laetitia Family: It started March 19, 2021, on the 5th anniversary of the publication of Amoris Laetitia; it concluded on June 26, 2022, during the X Meeting of Families in Rome.

The custom of calling "extraordinary" jubilees began in the 16th century and they can vary in length from a few days to a year.

In the 1900s there were two extraordinary jubilees linked to the upcoming extraordinary jubilee of 2033:

1933 proclaimed by Pope Pius XI to mark the 1,900th anniversary of Christ's Death and Resurrection and 1983 proclaimed by Pope John Paul II to mark the 1,950th anniversary.

But there can be other extraordinary jubilees.

Pope Leo XIII declared an extraordinary jubilee for the year 1886, under the patronage of Our Lady of the Rosary. In the encyclical declaring it, he wrote of the need for people to be Christians in their public life, so as to create states that are conformed to God's will, and he proposed the graces of the jubilee for the intention of people who "think and act like Christians, not less in public than in private."

Pope Paul VI declared an extraordinary jubilee to foster implementation of the Second Vatican Council as it came to a close. He declared it from December '65 through Pentecost of '66, and the jubilee indulgence was linked to study of the Vatican II documents.

Pope Francis gave us the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy: held from December 8, 2015, the Solemnity of Mary's Immaculate Conception, to November 20, 2016, the last Sunday of the liturgical year and feast of Christ the King. Pope Francis was particularly devoted to mercy as a attribute of God, saying "the name of God is mercy."

We know that Leo has his sights set on 2033. During his first apostolic trip, to Turkey, with its focus on Christian unity, he suggested that the 2033 jubilee could be a time for the next big ecumenical event. The 1,700th anniversary of the first ecumenical council brought Christian leaders together in Nicaea, and the 2,000 anniversary of the Resurrection could bring them together in Jerusalem, he proposed.

As we consider possible trips that could make for jubilees or holy years, though, another big anniversary comes to mind, and one that would probably appeal to our American-Peruvian pope: the 500th anniversary of Mary's apparition in Mexico, in 1531. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the empress of the Americas, both north and south, and a holy year dedicated to her would surely be a way for the pope to unite his two homelands. A Marian year in 2031 could be a great choice, and excellent preparation for 2033.

Then again, already 2026 is an interesting anniversary:

Since last summer, Pope Leo XIV has reportedly been working on his first encyclical. It is said to follow in the footsteps of Rerum novarum (1891), the encyclical of his namesake, Leo XIII (1878-1903) that laid the foundations of the Church's social doctrine. If released in 2026, Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical would mark the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum.

Interviewed in November by I.MEDIA , Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced that the Pope's first encyclical would not only deal with artificial intelligence, a topic of particular interest to Leo XIV, "but with the general situation of society." He stated that he expected the document to be published "soon."

A title has already leaked to the Italian media – Magnifica humanitas – "Magnificent Humanity."

Could there be a Holy Year of Christian Anthropology or even a Holy Year of the Human Person? Perhaps.

One last thought -- because the propositions and suppositions could be endless!

We have amply confirmed that Pope Leo is not only an Augustinian pope, but also an extremely devoted spiritual son of St. Augustine. He quotes his spiritual father in nearly every speech he gives.

Augustine died in the year 430, meaning that 2030 is a propitious anniversary for a holy year!

Other Augustinian options: his conversion in 386 or his ordination in 391.

Only God knows what holy years are in store ... but regardless, we continue on as Pilgrims of Hope!