The faithful can be granted a special indulgence - or remission of their sins - in dozens of churches in Malta during the 2025 Catholic Holy Year, the Archbishop has announced.
Organised every 25 years, the Jubilee, which began on Christmas Eve, is intended as a period of reflection, pilgrimage, and penance for Catholics.
Believers can also receive a 'plenary indulgence', which is a special grace of the Catholic Church designed to remove the punishment of sin.
"It means that the Lord frees you, with the power and merits of the saints, with the full atonement of your sins,” Archbishop Charles Scicluna said during a New Year’s Day Mass.
To receive an indulgence, believers need to pray the Our Father, the Nicene Creed, and the Salva Reġina. A believer would also need to have gone to confession and received Holy Communion in the week they go to a church to receive the indulgence.
Scicluna listed the churches where Catholics can receive the indulgence at the end of a New Year's Day Mass at Dar tal-Providenza.
They are: the Mdina Cathedral, St John’s Co-Cathedral, the Sanctuary of Our Lady in Mellieħa, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace in Żabbar, all the parish churches of Valletta, the Church of St Francis in Valletta, the Church of St Francis Ta Ġiżu, the Church of the Holy Cross in Floriana, the Church of St Theresa in Cospicua, the Catacombs and Church of St Agatha in Rabat, and the Church of St Patrick’s in Sliema.
Scicluna said believers will also be able to receive an indulgence at all of Malta’s minor basilicas and collegiate churches, as well as several chapels.
Those include the Mater Dei Hospital Chapel, the church at the St Vincent De Paul old people’s home, the prison chapel, the University Chapel, and the Millennium Chapel in Paceville.
On choosing the Millennium Chapel as one of the selected places of worship for indulgences, Scicluna said with a smile: “My hope is that those who go out to enjoy themselves also go to confession."
Gozo is a seperate diocese and it so far has not announced any participating churches.
He said he chose a long list of churches to facilitate more confession and the taking of Holy Communion and full atonement of sins.
During his homily, Sciculuna explained the difference between confession and an indulgence.
"Forgiveness comes through confession, but sin still leaves effects that need to be rid of. The church in these special moment gives this grace - the full atonement from sin".
Scicluna said that an indulgence can also be offered for loved ones who have died.
The Archbishop quoted the Pope when he said: “The indulgence of the Jubilee can also be achieved if people visit their brothers and sisters in need or in difficulty: the sick, inmates, lonely elderly, and people with disabilities”.
Scicluna said anyone donating on Wednesday to Dar tal-Providenza, a home for people with disabilities in Siġġiewi, would also receive an indulgence.
Dar tal-Providenza is holding its annual fundraising telethon on Wednesday.
The first Jubilee was instituted by Pope Boniface VIII in the 1300s and has become a regular event in the Catholic Church.
This year Pope Francis chose the theme of hope.