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The Holy Door of the Jubilee Year was opened on 24 December 2024. Just hours before, U.S. President Joe Biden made a significant decision, commuting the death sentences of 37 federal inmates to life imprisonment. Shortly afterwards, Zimbabwe's president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, abolished the death penalty entirely, with Cuba also announcing the release of 553 prisoners.

These developments serve as much-needed signs of hope, helping to lift our gaze from the sorrowful realities of war and violence. They also mark a fitting start to this Jubilee Year, aligning with the biblical roots of the Christian Jubilee which Pope Francis highlighted in Spes non confundit:

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"I propose that in this Jubilee Year governments undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope; forms of amnesty or pardon meant to help individuals regain confidence in themselves and in society; and programmes of reintegration in the community, including a concrete commitment to respect for law.

"This is an ancient appeal, one drawn from the word of God, whose wisdom remains ever timely. It calls for acts of clemency and liberation that enable new beginnings: 'You shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants' (Lev 25:10). Acts of amnesty, sentence reductions, and clemency reflect the two central themes of any Jubilee: mercy and forgiveness. Our world, more than ever, desperately needs both."

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We pray that the powerful signs of hope seen this week in Israel and Gaza will be fulfilled, in a lasting cessation of hostilities.

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Source: Vatican News