Calamar (Colombia). On 30 August 2025, the Youth Jubilee was celebrated in Calamar, Guaviare, a peripheral town, located several kilometers away from the main cities of Colombia.
The event was organized by Blessed Sister Maria Troncatti community of Calamar, of Our Lady of the Rosary Province of Chiquinquirá (CBC). In this context, the four Daughters of Mary Help of Christians – Sister María Teresa Aguirre Guzmán, Sister Noralma Almánzar, Sister María Antonia Ramírez, and the Italian missionary Sister Maria Cristiana Zanaica, who has been serving as coordinator of Youth Ministry in this presence since 2023 – worked in a synodal and networked way, involving various local authorities: the social body, the Municipal Sports Unit (UMDERCA), the Municipality, the José Eutasio Rivera house of culture, and the Cristo Re parish.
The Jubilee was therefore celebrated as part of the youth week, with the theme, “Hope is the anchor of the soul,” with the aim of reflecting together with young people on hope, peace, and reconciliation.
Through the “Meeting Tents” format, groups of young people from the different towns of the municipality and numerous adult volunteers had a space to reflect, share, and explore topics such as:
- Love of God without limits: they reflected on God’s forgiveness and mercy. Several priests from the Archdiocese of San José del Guaviare joined together to accompany the moment of reconciliation and confession.
- Anchored in Hope: They focused on the importance of hope in the Christian life.
- Give Color to Life with Love: They explored the importance of relationships and friendship.
- Amazement: they celebrated the beauty of life and nature.
- Encounter with friend Jesus: they discovered or rediscovered friendship with Jesus.
This event was an enriching experience for young people and helped them to explore and give a reason for their hope, to concretely grow in it as an important element of life, to make it flourish in society.
In the homily of the Youth Jubilee in Rome Tor Vergata, on 3 August 2025, Pope Leo XIV urged the thousands of young people present to grasp an important response to what was experienced in those days, “the fullness of our existence does not depend on what we accumulate nor on what we possess” but “rather to what we joyfully know how to welcome and share”.
And he had concluded with the wish, “Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are. Don’t settle for less. Then you will see the light of the Gospel grow every day, in you and around you. (…) continue to walk with joy in the footsteps of the Savior, and infect everyone you meet with your enthusiasm and the testimony of your faith!”
