POPE LEO XIV CLOSES 2025 HOLY YEAR WITH WARNING AGAINST CONSUMERISM AND XENOPHOBIA. (PHOTO).

 Pope Leo XIV closes 2025 Holy Year with warning against consumerism and xenophobia

  Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday formally brought the Vatican’s 2025 Holy Year to a close with a forceful critique of modern consumerism and hostility toward foreigners, concluding a rare Jubilee marked by extraordinary symbolism and historic transition. The year drew an estimated 33 million pilgrims to Rome and unfolded during an unprecedented handover between two American popes, beginning under the frail leadership of Pope Francis in December 2024 and ending under his successor one year later. Before an audience of cardinals and diplomats, Leo knelt in prayer at the threshold of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica and then rose to shut its heavy doors, signaling the end of the Jubilee. Only once before, in 1700, has a Holy Year been opened by one pope and closed by another, underscoring the unusual nature of the moment.

The ceremony, held at the start of a Mass for the feast of Epiphany, capped a whirlwind year that dominated the opening phase of Leo’s pontificate with constant liturgies, special audiences, and global pilgrimages. With the Jubilee concluded, Leo signaled a shift toward governing priorities by summoning the world’s cardinals to Rome for two days of meetings beginning Wednesday. The agenda includes discussion of the liturgy, pointing to an early and potentially contentious focus on divisions within the Church over the use of the traditional Latin Mass and other long-running internal debates.

In his homily, Leo said the Holy Year had challenged Christians to rediscover Biblical calls to welcome the stranger and to resist being swayed by the “flattery and seduction” of power. He warned that modern society is shaped by a distorted economy that seeks to profit from everything, even human relationships. Leo urged the faithful to reflect on whether the Jubilee had taught them to reject a mindset that reduces people to consumers and efficiency to profit alone. He asked whether, after the Holy Year, believers would be better able to see a pilgrim in the visitor, a seeker in the stranger, and a neighbor in the foreigner, rather than viewing difference as a threat.

That message was reinforced during a special Epiphany prayer delivered from the basilica’s central balcony to a rain-soaked St. Peter’s Square below. As crowds stood beneath umbrellas and ponchos, Leo recalled that Jubilees have traditionally been tied to appeals for peace and calls to address deep inequality. He invoked the idea of redistributing land and resources to those in need and prayed for fairness to replace inequality. He also denounced the global arms trade, calling for the “industry of war” to give way to what he described as the “craft of peace.”

For the Vatican, the Holy Year is a centuries-old spiritual tradition in which pilgrims travel to Rome, visit the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and pass through the Holy Door to receive indulgences tied to the forgiveness of sins. For the city of Rome, the Jubilee also serves as a catalyst for major infrastructure investment. Roughly 4 billion euros in public funding were directed toward long-delayed projects aimed at modernizing the city and addressing years of neglect. Vatican officials said more than 33 million pilgrims participated, though organizers acknowledged the figure was an estimate and may include double counting, with no clear separation between religious pilgrims and general tourists.

Jubilees have shaped Rome for more than seven centuries, beginning in 1300 when Pope Boniface VIII declared the first Holy Year, firmly establishing the city as the center of Christianity. The influx of pilgrims was so overwhelming that it was referenced by Dante in the “Inferno.” Over time, Holy Years have left a lasting physical imprint on Rome, from the commissioning of the Sistine Chapel for the 1475 Jubilee to large-scale infrastructure projects for the 2000 Jubilee. Not all have been without controversy, including the demolition of an entire neighborhood to build Via della Conciliazione ahead of the 1950 Holy Year.

The central public works legacy of the 2025 Jubilee was an extension of that iconic boulevard, creating a new pedestrian piazza along the Tiber River linking Via della Conciliazione with Castel St. Angelo, while traffic was rerouted through an underground tunnel. Looking ahead, Leo has already announced that the next Jubilee will take place in 2033, marking what Christians believe to be the 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Christ, signaling that the rhythm of Holy Years will continue even as the Church faces a rapidly changing world.