Our Lady Queen of Martyrs is a 2025 Jubilee Year Shrine Church
Pope Francis has proclaimed 2025 as a Jubilee Year, inviting Catholics around the world to embark on spiritual renewal as Pilgrims of Hope. The Jubilee concludes on the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6, 2026. Our Lady Queen of Martyrs has been designated by Bishop Robert Brennan as a Jubilee 2025 Shrine Church and Pilgrimage Site in the Diocese of Brooklyn/Queens. We invite you to visit our church as a place of prayer, reconciliation, and spiritual renewal—especially on our pilgrimage day, Thursday, March 13. Through confession, the Eucharist, prayer, and acts of mercy, pilgrims can receive a plenary indulgence, a special grace of forgiveness and restoration.
What is the Jubilee Year?
As proclaimed by the Catholic Church, a jubilee year is a time of grace, forgiveness, and spiritual renewal. In his decree announcing the 2025 Jubilee Year, Spes Non Confundit (“Hope does not disappoint”), Pope Francis encourages renewal, unity, and faith while also emphasizing mercy, solidarity, and care for the vulnerable. Hope that is grounded in God’s love and sustained by patience is needed for navigating life’s challenges and uncertainties, especially in a world where many people feel discouraged or pessimistic about the future.
On this web page, you’ll find resources and opportunities to participate in the 2025 Jubilee. Please contemplate the weekly reflections offered by the OLQM Catholic Teaching Committee, as featured on page 3 of our Sunday bulletin, on the need for prayer, repentance, and renewed faith as we embrace the call to hope.
What is a Plenary Indulgence?
A plenary indulgence is a Catholic grant that removes all temporal punishment for sin, provided the person meets certain conditions: spending time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, reciting the Our Father and the Profession of Faith, and invoking Mary’s intercession. During a Jubilee Year, it is typically granted for specific acts of devotion and differs from absolution, which forgives sin itself. At some point during the Jubilee Year, one should go to confession, participate in the Eucharist, and pray for the Pope’s intentions. The Vatican decree was outlined the different ways that Catholics may obtain the plenary indulgence during the 2025 Jubilee Year: (1) pilgrimage to any sacred Jubilee site, (2) pious visits to sacred places, and (3) works of mercy and penance.
Jubilee Year Resources
The Jubilee Prayer from Pope Francis
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops