Bishop Solis’s Message: Our Priests’ Jubilee Pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico

Friday, Aug. 15, 2025

Greetings of Christ’s peace! 

The late Pope Francis declared 2025 a Jubilee Year, which began in Rome on Christmas Eve 2024 and will end on the Feast of the Epiphany in 2026. The central theme of this Jubilee Year is hope. Jesus is our hope, the guiding star who gives direction, inspiration and purpose to our lives.

Pope Francis, in his Bull of Indiction for Jubilee 2025, emphasized the centrality of hope in Christian life. There is hope because God is with us always, accompanying us on our life’s journey, and he remains with us forever. St. Paul says, “The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit in Christ, who is our hope and our salvation. … With Christ, nothing can separate us from the love of God.” 

The grace of God helps us make this happen when we remain steadfast in our faith, persevere in prayer, and when our lives are directed to our Lord Jesus, who conquered sin by his death and resurrection. With hope we can press forward amid the sorrows of life, knowing these trials are fleeting and temporary, and that eternal joy and peace await us if we remain in Christ’s love and live in his love.

Pope Francis called us to be “tangible signs of hope” for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind. The Holy Year is a wonderful opportunity for us to strengthen our Christian hope renewed by God’s grace in Christ, who is our hope that does not disappoint.

The celebration of the Jubilee Year includes pilgrimages, that is, visiting churches and other places of prayer and worship. It reminds us that we are just pilgrims passing through a world filled with pain and perils along the way toward our eternal destiny.

The priests in our diocese, together with me, have embarked on a spiritual pilgrimage to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe not as tourists but as “Pilgrims of Hope,” to pray for all the faithful in our parishes and missions, to consecrate the Diocese of Salt Lake City under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as to obtain plenary indulgences and other graces to help us renew our priestly commitment to be God’s faithful shepherds of his flock entrusted to our care.

We are all called to be beacons and bearers of hope in our Church and in the world. Let us journey together as one faith community, sharing the love of God with everyone, and providing hope to those who seek a brighter future so they can recover the joy of living as children of God created in his own image and likeness.

Please pray for our safe journey that we may come back with all the graces from God and share his blessings with all the people in Utah.

+The Most Rev. Oscar A. Solis

Bishop of Salt Lake City