BRAWLEY – Catholics from all over the Imperial Valley filled the Catholic churches of this town to celebrate the Jubilee Year of Hope.
The day began on April 22 in this town of about 30,000 with the faithful packing Sacred Heart Church for opening prayers. Afterward, they processed to St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, across town to the south side, where Auxiliary Bishop Ramón Bejarano celebrated a Mass.
“It looks like all of Brawley came out for this,” one parishioner said before Mass, joining many others from churches across the Valley.
The Mass kicked off the “Jubilee of Hope” in the Catholic Communities of Brawley and Westmorland. And it celebrated the designation of St. Margaret Mary Church by Cardinal Robert W. McElroy – the former bishop of the Diocese of San Diego – as the pilgrimage church in the Imperial Valley during the Jubilee Year.
A Jubilee Year is a celebration declared by the pope every 25 years. The current Jubilee Year, which has as a theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” began on Dec. 24, 2024, and is to conclude on Jan. 6, 2026.
A jubilee year is an “event of great spiritual, ecclesial, and social significance in the life of the Church. The concept of ‘Jubilee’ has its origins in the Book of Leviticus (chapter 25) as a special year of reconciliation, pilgrimage, and coming home,” according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ website.
“Everyone knows what it is to hope. In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring,” Pope Francis wrote in the papal letter announcing the Jubilee Year, “Spes non confundit,” or “Hope does not disappoint” (Romans, 5:5).
“Even so, uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt. Often, we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness.
“For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope,” the pope wrote. “God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope.”
During the Jubilee Year, pilgrims who can’t journey to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome can celebrate it in their local churches. For the Diocese of San Diego, the Jubilee Year 2025 officially opened Dec. 29, with a procession from Our Lady of the Rosary Church to St. Joseph Cathedral, designated as the pilgrimage church.
While traditionally one church has that designation in each diocese, in order to make access easier, Cardinal McElroy declared St. Margaret Mary in Brawley a pilgrimage site for residents in the Imperial Valley, Bishop Bejarano said.
“Pope Francis invited us and reminded us that we are pilgrims of hope,” the auxiliary bishop said. “We are a church of hope, not sadness or doom. We see many times in the world (there is) loss and darkness, confusion and uncertainty, so it is always important that we know that in Christ we have our hope — that only Christ can help and save us.
“Hope is not about thinking that tomorrow is going to be better; it’s about knowing that no matter what, God is always going to be with us and to help us,” the bishop said. “Whenever we are holding firm to the hands of Christ, we have nothing to fear. It’s really important that people here in the Imperial Valley know that they don’t have anything to fear because Jesus is with them.”
Catholics can obtain a plenary indulgence throughout the Jubilee Year of Hope. The requirements include visiting a designated pilgrim church, participating in the sacrament of Reconciliation (confession), worthily receiving the Holy Eucharist (within a month from Reconciliation), reciting the Creed, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father, (the late) Pope Francis.
The Diocese of San Diego published a bilingual web page (sdcatholic.org/jubilee2025) that offers information related to the Jubilee Year, including a prayer.
Catholics, lay and ordained, packed the small pilgrim church, filling every corner of St. Margaret Mary Church.
“We didn’t fit — people were standing all over the place,” the bishop said after the Mass, referring to both Sacred Heart and St. Margaret Mary Churches.
“What a beautiful blessing that people really are celebrating this gift of hope, because they understand the whole meaning of the jubilee and the gift that Jesus is for each one of us,” the bishop said. “We are a Church that always brings hope to the world.”
