Jubilee Year – Pilgrims of Hope

St Thomas of Canterbury Church here in Canterbury has been designated by John Wilson, Archbishop of Southwark, as a Jubilee Church.

Such churches are to be seen as ‘sacred places of welcome and privileged spaces for the rebirth of hope’ (Spes non confundit, 24).

All faithful pilgrims of hope, will be able to obtain the Jubilee Indulgence granted by the Holy Father if they undertake a pious pilgrimage to any sacred Jubilee site. Our Archbishop has designated 16 Jubilee Churches and Shrines in Southwark. They are as follows:

South-West London Area

  • Cathedral of St George
  • Sacred Heart, Wimbledon
  • St Ann, Kingston Hill
  • St Mary’s (Our Lady of Reparation), West Croydon
  • St Boniface, Tooting
  • St Elizabeth, Richmond

South-East London Area

  • St Saviour’s, Lewisham
  • Our Lady of Sorrows, Peckham
  • St Edmund of Canterbury, Beckenham
  • St Thomas More, Dulwich
  • St Stephen, Welling

Kent Area

  • St Thomas of Canterbury, Canterbury
  • Our Lady of Hartley, Hartley
  • The Friars, Aylesford
  • St Augustine’s Shrine, Ramsgate
  • St Jude’s Shrine, Faversham

Plenary Indulgences

An Indulgence during the Jubilee Year is meant to grant the faithful a special opportunity for spiritual renewal and the remission of temporal punishment due to sin. In Catholic teaching, indulgences do not forgive sins themselves (that is done through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Repentance) but help lessen the consequences of sin in this life or in Purgatory.

During a Jubilee Year, which is traditionally a time of mercy and grace, the Church offers Plenary Indulgences to those who fulfil specific conditions, such as:

  • Going on pilgrimage to designated holy sites
  • Receiving the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist
  • Praying for the Pope’s intentions
  • Performing acts of charity or mercy

The purpose of these indulgences is to encourage deeper conversion, a renewed commitment to faith, and a more profound experience of God’s mercy. Father Ivano Millico in a CTS booklet “Words of Hope” says the following:

“What an indulgence says is that we are not alone along our journey and we cannot be saved on our own! The Church is a body, the Body of Christ; his suffering, death and resurrection and ascension make up, so to speak, a “treasury” of mercy, graces and hope. An indulgence opens this treasury for us”.

All are very welcome to our Jubilee Church here at St Thomas’ of Canterbury in Canterbury. May your pilgrimage journey fill you full of hope.