The Jubilee of Hope will conclude when Pope Leo closes the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 6. Now is an opportunity for us to begin to assess its notable successes and missed opportunities. The first great success is that it has given the Catholic Church a year to focus on the most easily forgotten theological virtue. If “faith, hope and love remain,” as St. Paul affirms (1 Corinthians 13:13), hope endures most precariously. On the other hand, in many areas, the Jubilee remained on the periphery of Catholic life. A case in point are the catecheses given by Pope Francis and Pope Leo over the course of the Jubilee. These had almost no impact on the Church, even on those attending the individual audiences in which they were given.
