Rome (Italy). On 28 June 2022, at the Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, the first conference towards Jubilee 2025, was held with the description of the steps in preparation for the celebration of the Holy Year and the presentation of the official Logo.

In his greeting, the Secretary of State Card. Pietro Parolin, recalling the motto “Pilgrims of hope” of the ordinary Jubilee 2025, which follows Jubilee 2000 proclaimed by St. John Paul II, and the extraordinary one of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis in 2015, affirmed:

“May this motto become authentic content for the whole world to experience. The events of these years, of these recent months, seem to oblige the Church to keep her gaze fixed on the theological virtue of hope … and hope calls everyone to be responsible builders of a better world,  as Pope Francis wrote in view of the jubilee year:

‘We must … do everything so that each one may regain the strength and the certainty of looking to the future with an open spirit’.”

Cardinal Parolin defined it as an event that will attract millions of pilgrims to Rome to the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul and “in order to cross the Holy Door according to the ancient Jubilee tradition, an event of faith, but at the same time of culture and admiration of the beauty of these places.”

The guidelines of the Jubilee journey were explained by Msgr. Rino Fisichella, Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Sector for fundamental issues of evangelization in the world:

“The celebration of an ordinary Jubilee foresees a preparation that takes years for the commitment that such an event entails,” explained Msgr. Fisichella, who thanked the civil authorities present for their collaboration in this preparatory phase of the Jubilee, underlining the need to provide the local Churches scattered throughout the world with pastoral tools so that they can be an ecclesial event of support to the faith and an impulse for evangelization.

There will be two themes on which we will focus in these two years that separate from the Jubilee, as desired by Pope Francis:

“2023 will be dedicated to revisiting the themes of the four Conciliar Constitutions, so that the Church can breathe again the profound and current teaching produced by the Second Vatican Council, on the 60th anniversary of its opening on 11 October. For this reason, a series of resources are being produced to allow those who have no memory of the event to become curious and enter into the merits of the Council.

2024 will be a year dedicated to prayer, in order to create a favorable context for the Jubilee and allow pilgrims to prepare for this event in a coherent and efficacious way”.

In introducing the Jubilee Logo, Msgr. Fisichella also focused on the relevance of the communication aspect:“Millions of users should be able to become pilgrims also through digital technology, and move along the paths, grasping the beauty and sacredness of the time by receiving news …. The Jubilee Logo expresses the special spiritual identity and theme enclosing the theological meaning around which this historic appointment develops and takes place”.

The conference was attended by Giacomo Travisani, winner of the International Logo Competition from among the 294 proposals from 213 cities and 48 different countries, created by students, graphic studios, religious institutes, professionals, art scholars between the ages of 6 and 83. “It was moving to review these projects, fruit of the imagination and simple faith of the people”, commented Archbishop Fisichella, who read the explanation of the logo chosen by Pope Francis from three projects selected by the judging Commission:

“The Logo represents four stylized figures to indicate humanity from the four corners of the earth. They are embracing one another to indicate the solidarity and fraternity that must unite peoples. It is noted that the row opener is clinging to the cross. It is the sign not only of the faith that it embraces, but of the hope that can never be abandoned because we always need it, above all, in times of greatest necessity.

It is useful to observe the waves that are below and move to indicate that the pilgrimage of life does not always move in calm waters. Personal vicissitudes and world events often impose the call to hope with greater intensity. This is why we must emphasize the lower part of the Cross that is transformed into an anchor, which imposes itself on the motion of the waves. As we know, the anchor has often been used as a metaphor for hope. The anchor of hope, in fact, is the name given in marine jargon to the reserve anchor, used by boats to carry out emergency maneuvers to stabilize the ship during storms.

Do not overlook the fact that the image shows how the pilgrim’s journey is not an individual fact, but a community one with the imprint of a growing dynamism that tends more and more towards the Cross. The Cross is by no means static; it too is dynamic. It bends towards humanity as if to go out to meet it and not leave it alone, but offering the certainty of presence and the security of hope. Finally, in green, the Motto of the Jubilee 2025, Peregrinantes in Spem, is clearly visible”.

He also specified that, “After the summer, the official website of the Jubilee will be available with its App, tools to help pilgrims with the proposed events, facilitating the spiritual and cultural experience of the city of Rome”.

In conclusion, Archbishop Fisichella announced the preparation of a first list of major events dedicated to certain categories: the Jubilee of families, of children, of young people, of movements, of associations, of the elderly, of grandparents, of the disabled, of sports, of the sick, of health workers, etc. The calendar will be presented by the end of the year.

“The next Jubilee will greatly favor the recomposition of a climate of hope and trust, as a sign of a renewed rebirth of which we all feel the urgency.” (Papa Francesco).

1 COMMENT

  1. Dios mediante empezaremos a preparar este año santo con los jovenes servidores y voluntarios de nuestras Diocesis y Arquidiócesis, ademas de los jovenes que caminan con nosotros en las Instituciones educativas

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