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Jubilee pilgrimages — more than getting your passport stamped

By Lara Pickford-Gordon

snrwriter.camsel@catholictt.org

The inability to get a Pilgrim Passport in some parishes or just a matter of convenience has resulted in people going to get one wherever they can.

Vicar General Fr Martin Sirju, a member of the Jubilee Committee, acknowledges the high interest in acquiring the passport with requests coming even from non-Catholics. He said the concept of belonging to a parish has changed as Catholics are going to Masses in different areas.

“It is hard to say any more as in the past, ‘I belong to this parish’ because you come to Cathedral during the week, you go to Carenage on the weekend,” he commented.

As Administrator of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, he has instructed that people seeking passports should not be turned away. “Just take the information, name, and number so they can be contacted if needs be. I think that is the better way to go,” he explained.

Fr Sirju acknowledged that while the passport “is creating a lot of traction on the ground”, the other aspects of the visits to the sacred sites are not. He remarked, “we have to kind of use the passport, and use in a lighthearted serious way, attach the other conditions to getting the passport stamped.”

Fr Sirju added, “If you make people feel there are onerous conditions before you can get a passport stamped, they may not go for the passport. This is what you don’t want.”

The Jubilee Year is about thanksgiving and celebration, which people have embraced but Fr Sirju reminded the faithful of the importance of reconciliation and forgiveness of debts. It cannot be about “getting your passport stamped, and nothing else”.

There is a plenary indulgence for Jubilee 2025 participation. An indulgence for oneself or a soul in Purgatory can be obtained by fulfilling the requirements listed at the back of the passport: Sacrament of Penance, attending Mass and receiving the Eucharist, praying for the Pope’s intentions.

The pilgrim can choose to “enter prayerfully into one of the following”: pilgrimage to a sacred Jubilee site (local or foreign), spiritual works of mercy and penance, people who cannot participate in-person can do virtual liturgical celebrations or pilgrimages, recite the ‘Our Father’, make a ‘Profession of Faith’ and recite prayers for the Holy Year.

Fr Sirju said, “When you come to the sacred site, you should really try and fulfil all the conditions, whether before or after.”  He explained: “Once you enter the church, you can get your passport stamped but you also bear in mind going along with the stamping of the passport, ‘I have to try and get Confession, I have to go to Mass, receive Communion, I have to pray for the Pope’s intention, I have to perform a work of mercy, which I could have done before, like Confession’.”

He added, “But there should be proximity of action around the stamping of the passport, especially something like going to Mass and receiving Communion that has to be done at the sacred site on a particular day.”

Implementing the criteria is not meant to be “too exacting” for the faithful. Fr Sirju stated that it is God that applies the grace. He stressed the significance of the sacred site visits as a call to ongoing conversion, “you really try to continue to do in your life or keep your life in a good spiritual condition”.

Using Lent as an example, he said people will fast from alcohol, certain foods etc but after Lent there should not be a reversion to previous conduct. For the Jubilee Year, Fr Sirju said, “It’s not, ‘I visit the sacred site, and it finish so I back to how I was living my life’. It is really a step in spiritual progression and development.”

Head of the Archdiocese Jubilee Committee, Rhonda Maingot, in a FAQ, said the hope is that the passports will encourage people to enter the tremendous grace flowing in the Jubilee Year.

Visiting the sacred sites and participating in the actions to obtain an indulgence, will help Catholics live a blessed and holy life, forgive, forget, and enter what God’s will is for them. At year end, the passport will be a memento, “a beautiful sign of our participation in this holy year and a sign that will remind us of the grace that flowed into our hearts and into the life to the Church in this year 2025”.