A Jubilee Year for Guadalupe: 50 Years Since the Transfer
On October 12, 2026, Pope Leo XIV opens a Jubilee Year marking a half-century since the tilma was carried into the New Basilica. Here's what it is, what it means, and how to receive the plenary indulgence.
On September 9, 2026, Cardinal Carlos Aguiar Retes — the primate archbishop of Mexico — announced that Pope Leo XIV had granted a Jubilee Year for Our Lady of Guadalupe. It marks fifty years since the image of the Virgin was carried, on October 12, 1976, from the Old Basilica into the New Basilica that still houses it today.
The Jubilee runs a full year, from October 12, 2026 through October 12, 2027.
What is opening on October 12
Cardinal Aguiar will celebrate the opening Mass of the Roses at noon on October 12, 2026, at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. He will formally open the Holy Door — the physical sign that a Jubilee Year is under way.
Construction on the current basilica began in 1974. Two years later, on October 12, 1976, the tilma of Saint Juan Diego — the same rough agave-fiber cloak with the image miraculously imprinted on it in 1531 — was transferred from the Old Basilica (now called the Expiatory Temple of Christ the King) into the new circular structure. That transfer is what the anniversary commemorates.
The plenary indulgence
A Jubilee Year comes with a plenary indulgence — the full remission of the temporal punishment due to sin already forgiven. To receive it during this Jubilee, the faithful must:
- Visit the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City with devotion and a contrite spirit
- Participate in a liturgical act at the basilica, or spend time in prayer there
- Go to sacramental confession
- Receive Eucharistic Communion
- Recite the Creed
- Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father
The last four are the "usual conditions" attached to any Church indulgence. The first two are what make this particular one Guadalupan — it is tied specifically to the shrine at Tepeyac.
Why this Jubilee matters
Guadalupe is already the most visited Marian shrine in the world. Roughly 20 million pilgrims come to Mexico City each year — three times the traffic at Lourdes, second only to the Vatican itself. On the feast day of December 12, more than 3 million arrive in a single weekend.
A Jubilee Year is not a permanent designation. Popes grant them for specific occasions — anniversaries, universal jubilees every 25 years, or, as in this case, a milestone in the life of a particular shrine. The last time Guadalupe had one of this scope was for the 450th anniversary of the apparition in 1981.
Cardinal Aguiar's charge to the faithful: "May Saint Mary of Guadalupe, mother of the true God through whom we live, help us to make the most of this jubilee" and pursue "spiritual renewal and conversion."
If you can't make it to Mexico City
Most of us can't. But the year is also an invitation to bring the image into daily life at home — printed on canvas from the digital archive of the Sacred Original certified in Mexico in 1998 as a faithful reproduction.
The Novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe is one traditional way to mark the Jubilee wherever you are — nine days of prayer, one for each of her apparitions to Juan Diego and Juan Bernardino. December 3–11 prepares the heart for the feast day itself on December 12.
Bring the tilma image into your home or chapel.
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