Pope closes Catholic Church's Holy Year with plea to help foreigners and people in need

The next jubilee is not expected before 2033, when the Church may have a special one to mark 2,000 years since the death of Jesus

Pope Leo XIV closes St. Peter's Basilica Holy Door to end the 2025 ordinary Jubilee year, at the Vatican on Tuesday. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli via AP

Pope Leo closed the Catholic Church's Holy Year on Tuesday by sealing shut the special "Holy Door" in St. Peter's Basilica and urging Christians worldwide to help those in need and treat foreigners with kindness.

Leo, who has made care for immigrants a central theme of his early papacy, told a Vatican ceremony that the record 33.5 million pilgrims who visited Rome during the Holy Year should have learned not to treat humans as mere "products".