During the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025, the Paterson Diocese will offer its faithful two unique ways this Lent to encourage them to receive God’s mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation — fundamental for deepening their relationship with him and preparing for Easter.
The diocese will continue its longstanding Welcome Home to Healing program so everyone can experience God’s healing by visiting any parish on Monday evenings for confession from March 10 to April 14 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. During this Jubilee Year, the faithful are also invited to visit any of the five local designated holy sites appointed by Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney.
For both initiatives, penitents will also have the opportunity to receive a plenary indulgence, the remission of punishment for sins God already forgave, as granted by Pope Francis this holy year. Other conditions need to be met, such as the person’s sincere repentance, confession of their sins, reception of Holy Communion, and prayer for Pope Francis’s intentions.
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The designated holy sites are the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, the diocese’s “mother church”; the Shrine of St. Joseph in the Stirling neighborhood of Long Hill Township; St. Bernard Clairvaux Parish in the Mount Hope neighborhood of Rockaway Township; St. Luke Parish in the Long Valley neighborhood of Washington Township; and St. James the Greater in Montague. The faithful are welcome to visit these sites anytime during the Jubilee Year.
“..The indulgence is a way of discovering the unlimited nature of God’s mercy. Not by chance, for the ancients, the terms ‘mercy’ and ‘indulgence’ were interchangeable, as expressions of the fullness of God’s forgiveness, which knows no bounds,” Pope Francis wrote in his Bull of Indiction about the Jubilee, “Spes non confundit,” or “Hope does not disappoint.”
Bishop Emeritus Arthur J. Serratelli established Welcome Home to Healing to draw the faithful into a deeper or renewed relationship with the Lord Jesus during the holy season of Lent and to invite those who have been away from the Church to “come home to God” and receive forgiveness in confession. Some priests have reported hearing confessions from people who haven’t been to church in decades. Often, churches have stayed open longer to accommodate all those seeking to go to confession on Monday evenings in Lent.
“The opportunity to celebrate this ‘Sacrament of Healing’ and hear the words, “I absolve you of your sins … Go in Peace, your sins are forgiven” is a cause for great joy and gratitude: gratitude to God for His Merciful Love and gratitude for our priests, who are the instruments of that mercy and are generously available, not only on the Monday evenings of Lent but on a daily basis,” Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney writes in his latest column, “Daily Mass, Reconciliation, the Jubilee Prayer, the Hallow App, and many more opportunities for Grace in the Season of Lent.”
For general and diocesan information about the Jubilee, visit Paterson’s designated page.
