Closing the Jubilee Year with Hope and Opening the New Year in Prayer for Peace and Vocations

A Jubilee Year Concluded in Hope, Unity, and the Example of the Holy Family

On Sunday, united with other bishops from around the world, I celebrated a special Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fall River to close the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope in our Diocese. Our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV will solemnly close the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on January 6, 2026, the Feast of the Epiphany, officially concluding the year begun under the late Pope Francis.

As part of our closing observance, the 2025 Jubilee Year crosses that were blessed and sent forth last year to be present in the four Jubilee Year pilgrimage sites in the Diocese were formally brought back to the Cathedral in the opening procession of the Mass.

The Jubilee Year closing was celebrated on the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Our Mass was trilingual, with parts said in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, to serve the representative faithful of the Diocese present for the celebration. I invited them all, as we celebrated the beautiful Feast of the Holy Family, to consider imitating this Family of Nazareth. I pointed out how they were a family always dependent on God and on each other. Like our own families of today, the Holy Family knew suffering, hardship, injustice, and even hatred. In the face of it, they stayed united with God and each other; in that way, they knew they could overcome their struggles. The Holy Family remains a model for us today. They are an example of how staying together, dependent on God and each other, is the way forward through whatever challenges we encounter in our familial lives.

We need to keep in mind that the Spirit is with us; in doing so, we will find consolation and joy in our hearts in the coming year. “Hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:1-2.5).

Fellowship and Fostering Vocations at the St. Andrew Dinner

Just before Christmas, we gathered for the annual St. Andrew Dinner, which included seminarians, those considering a vocation, and priests, for an evening of prayer and conversation about the priesthood.

Held at the St. Ann Parish Center in Raynham, the dinner provided a welcoming, relaxed setting where young men discerning a vocation could share a meal and their call to serve Christ and His Church as priests. The evening included informal discussion and the opportunity to hear firsthand from seminarians and clergy about their own vocational journeys.

The St. Andrew Dinner is one of several annual gatherings held by the Vocations Office to encourage and support discernment. This is one of many events to support the Diocese’s commitment to fostering a culture of vocations and accompanying young men as they listen for God’s call in their lives.

We are grateful to all who attended and to those who helped make the evening a success. Please continue to keep our seminarians and all those discerning a vocation to the priesthood in your prayers.

Praying for Peace Amid the Darkness of War

We begin the new year as we began 2025, in prayer for peace.

In my first blog post of 2025, written in observance of the World Day for Peace, I shared my hope that the global community would heed Pope Francis’s call to ease pain and suffering throughout our world. Sadly, that suffering has continued for far too many innocent people. Once again, we are called to prayer to seek and to bear witness to the light of Christ amid the darkness of war.

In his first World Day of Peace message, Pope Leo calls for a peace that is “unarmed and disarming,” humble, persevering, and rooted in unconditional love. This peace is not merely an aspiration, but a living presence that transforms hearts and resists the darkness of violence, fear, and division. Even amid continued war, instability, and despair, the Holy Father reminds us that peace dwells within us and invites us to protect and radiate it through our choices, witness, and hope.

I believe in my heart that peace can, and will, prevail. But it must begin somewhere. Perhaps here, among us, through prayer and actions to promote peace in our community and world. 

Happy New Year,

Bishop da Cunha