Pope Leo XIV closes the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 6, 2026, at the Vatican, marking the official end of the Jubilee Year. CNS PHOTO/VATICAN MEDIA
Jubilee Year: Communications and Hope
BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC
So much has changed since we kicked off the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025.
On Dec. 24, 2024, Pope Francis was taken in a wheelchair to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, where he paused in prayer before knocking on the door, which was then opened to inaugurate the Holy Year 2025.
Neena Gaynor, in writing the first reflection of The Western Kentucky Catholic’s yearlong Pilgrims of Hope blog series, commented that “… I feel the collective curiosity of the world waiting, wondering what the future holds.”
We in the Office of Communications wondered what the future held in store, too, while we were commissioned to create printed materials and a webpage to help the faithful of the Diocese of Owensboro observe the Jubilee.
Bishop Medley had designated six pilgrimage sites throughout the diocese to be places of prayer and opportunities to obtain a plenary indulgence during the Year of Hope: St. Stephen Cathedral in Owensboro, St. Romuald Parish in Hardinsburg, Holy Redeemer Parish in Beaver Dam, the Diocesan Shrine of Mary at St. Joseph Parish in Bowling Green, St. Leo Parish in Murray, and St. Francis de Sales Parish in Paducah.
Through consultation with the Office of the Bishop and the Office of Worship, we designed a poster to distribute among the parishes with information about the Jubilee, as well as “passports” that pilgrims in our diocese could carry with them when they visited a pilgrimage site. We also designed the stamps unique to each site – which were made available for pilgrims to stamp their passports – as well as the prayer cards dedicated to all the pilgrimage sites. Lastly, our office created limited-edition tote bags featuring the names of the sites and the crest of the diocese and the Vatican’s Jubilee logo.
We were thrilled when many diocesan pilgrims completed their visits to all six sites; after they sent in pictures of their stamped passports, we gifted them a Jubilee tote bag with a few goodies tucked inside.
Parishioners of Holy Spirit in Bowling Green make a jubilee pilgrimage to St. Stephen Cathedral and experience a tour on Sept. 30, 2025. RILEY GREIF | WKC
Our primary focus in 2025 was on the Jubilee, but that didn’t mean we overlooked our many other projects! Over the course of the year, we saw 739 new followers on the diocese’s Facebook page, 392 new followers on our Instagram, and 112 new subscribers on our YouTube channel. We mailed the WKC to 20,000-plus recipients each month. We produced nine videos in English and nine in Spanish for the Office of Evangelization & Discipleship’s “In the Word with Bishop Medley” small group video series.
In spring 2025, following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday, we kept the faithful updated and informed about what would happen next, such as the conclave and election of our next Holy Father. On May 8, the day that Pope Leo XIV was elected, our office coordinated a press conference that day with local media, providing Bishop Medley with the chance to speak to all people – not just those in our pews – about the hopeful anticipation with our new pope from the United States.
That fall, digital media specialist Riley Greif, while covering our diocesan youths’ attendance at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis, was among the thousands watching a live, digital encounter with Pope Leo held in Lucas Oil Stadium.
The fact that the pope chose to interact digitally with the youth of the U.S., answering their genuine questions and sharing his thoughtful wisdom in real-time, was just the beginning of our 267th pontiff’s support of evangelization through media. As he shared in a May 12, 2025, audience with representatives of the media: “Today, one of the most important challenges is to promote communication that can bring us out of the ‘Tower of Babel’ in which we sometimes find ourselves, out of the confusion of loveless languages that are often ideological or partisan. Therefore, your service, with the words you use and the style you adopt, is crucial.”
The Jubilee of Hope concluded on Dec. 28, 2025, but we will continue to follow the Holy Father’s call to move forward, using our gifts and tools of communication, into a hope-filled future.
The Office of Communications is made up of Rachel Hall, communications director; of Elizabeth Wong Barnstead, editor of The Western Kentucky Catholic; and Riley Greif, digital media specialist.
Related:
Originally printed in the Diocese of Owensboro’s 2025-2026 impact report in June 2026.
