Competition for Jubilee 2025 Hymn kicks off

By Benedict Mayaki, SJ

With preparations beginning in view of the Holy Year 2025, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, in charge of coordinating the Holy See’s efforts for the Jubilee Year, is launching a competition, open to all, for the composition of the Jubilee hymn.

Interested participants in the competition are invited to set to music a text proposed by the Dicastery’s Section for Fundamental Questions regarding Evangelization in the World, which expresses the essence of the jubilee event.

The hymn is intended to have a liturgical purpose and should be capable of being sung by a Church congregation and by a schola cantorum.

Entries in the competition are required to be sent in by 25 March 2023.

Modalities

The Dicastery for Evangelization stipulates some conditions for entries in the Jubilee Hymn competition.

Compositions must be original by the author and unpublished, and must have the added embellishment for the part for the schola cantorum, for the 4-voice singing of the refrain and stanzas.

Participants are also required to submit the score for voice and organ, and the entry must not be the work of a paid commission, and must never have been performed before in a concert or public event, or transmitted by any broadcast media.

Further conditions for the entries are contained on the webpage created for the Jubilee 2025 Hymn competition

Application forms for the competition will be accessible at www.iubilaeum2025.va/en/inno.html, starting January 16, 2023 and ending at 8 p.m. (Italian time, CET) on March 25, 2023.

After that date and after the selection has been completed, only the winner of this competition will be contacted. 


Jubilee Year

The Catholic Church celebrates a Jubilee every 25 years. It is a time to revitalize the daily life of the Church and of every Christian.

Each Jubilee Year has a theme. Pope Francis has chosen “Pilgrims of Hope” as the theme of Jubilee 2025.

A Jubilee is “ordinary” if it falls after the customary 25-year period, and “extraordinary” when it is proclaimed by for some outstanding event. The 2025 Jubilee will take place in line with the 25-year gap period.