Rome (Italy). Around 5,000 young people of the Salesian Youth Movement from 33 countries around the world who in Rome participated from 28 July to 3 August 2025 in the Youth Jubilee in the Charism of Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello, together with thousands of other young people.
The Salesian Center, made up of the FMA and SDB communities of the “Don Bosco” district of Rome, near the Basilica, was the driving force of the event, offering all the main services to pilgrims: purchase of meals with tickets; info point; departure of guided tours in Rome; medical health facility; water distribution point, and of course, courtyards to meet each other, reflect in groups, play.
Salesian Volunteers
The reception in the spaces of the Salesian Pole, in the accommodation facilities, and the orientation within the city of Rome were prepared and coordinated by a hundred young and adult volunteers, including 65 Salesian Cooperators from Salesian Italy, serving pilgrims.
A novelty was the presence of the AI Angels social team, a team of young volunteers, including SDB and two FMA, who dealt with digital reporting – photos, videos and reels, interviews – supported and integrated by Artificial Intelligence.
Catechesis, Confessions, and Eucharistic celebrations
The SYM groups welcomed in the Salesian center were offered the opportunity to experience moments of catechesis, Celebrations of the Eucharist and Reconciliation. In Don Bosco Basilica, from 28 July to 1 August, various priests were available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and spiritual dialogue.
From 28 July to 2 August, according to a program, catechesis by language was also organized, entrusted to some SDB and FMA coordinators – including the collaborators of the Youth Ministry Sector of the FMA Institute – in which groups or individual pilgrims could freely participate. Various themes were addressed – a life centered on Christ, a life full of hope, vocation to holiness, the politics of the Our Father, the politics that gives hope to society – in addition to the dreams expressed by young people during the Salesian Youth Synod (2024).
Some biblical passages aimed at proclaiming Jesus have also been suggested in the Catechesis. Furthermore, truths of faith classified as doctrinal, moral, and cult were presented. Another characteristic of catechesis was the integration of some elements of Salesian Youth Spirituality (SGS) as a narrative of the experiences of Salesian Saints or other young Saints of the Church: Michele Magone, Laura Vicuña, Augusto Czartoryski, Akash Bashir, Artemide Zatti, Piergiorgio Frassati, Jose Sanchez del Rio.
The catecheses concluded with proposals for action: engaging in prayer and growing in listening, knowledge and meditation on the Word of God, growing in commitment towards those most in need through the apostolate, social commitment or volunteering, start a journey of spiritual accompaniment and vocational discernment through a life project.
SYM Jubilee Festival
On 30 July, at the heart of the SYM events, the SYM Jubilee Festival was held in the square in front of the Basilica: the artistic, reflection, and prayer evening that involved all young people from the Salesian world who wished to perform or contribute with their talents. The protagonists of the 1st part were MGSound from Piedmont, the SYM Centroamerica, the oratory from Latina, the groups from Kenya, La Spezia, MGS-MEM Mexico, and the DB Sons from Sicily, with music, dances, and creative expressions.
After the fraternal dinner, the evening, led by Gigi Cotichella and his wife Laura, came to life with music, dynamics, and games until culminating in the vigil with Eucharistic adoration animated by Fr. Rafael Bejarano, SDB General Councilor for Youth Ministry, with significant gestures such as the memory of baptism and the “delivery of fears” written on slips of paper.
Significant was the presence throughout the event, of the Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, and the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr. Fabio Attard, who together at the end of the adoration, gave the Goodnight to their young people.
“You are the resource, the great potential of the world; you are for us the most precious part of humanity, as Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello stated,” Mother Chiara told them, who encouraged them to entrust to Jesus “your life, your expectations, in your doubts, your dreams, with trust and love.”. (Complete Text)
Echoing the words of Mother, the Rector Major emphasized the importance of being “artisans of peace”: “We can be so to the extent that we make peace prevail, first of all, in our hearts. And that peace is a person: that peace is Jesus. And the moment we have Jesus, we become #peacebuilders… to the extent that we become peace builders, we also become missionaries of hope, wherever we are, through our testimony, our presence, our kindness, our example. (Foto: Flickr FMA)
On 1 August, the young Salesians participated in the Penitential Day at the Circus Maximus, approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation together with thousands of pilgrims and they received one of the 10 thousand copies of the Youcat foundation’s booklet in different languages, containing an examination of conscience, explanations on the meaning of confession, and some prayers.
Mandate of the Rector Major and Mother General to SYM
An important moment, leaving towards Tor Vergata, was the mandate of the Rector Major and the Mother General to the young people of the SYM on the morning of 2 August, gathered in groups in the courtyard of the Don Bosco Center of the Salesians, overflowing with energy and colors.
With a symbolic gesture, after a brief celebration, together with some representatives of young people, FMA and SDB, the two Superiors planted biodegradable sheets of paper with flower seeds inside them in an earthen vase, on which were written gestures of peace made by the young people present or in contact through digital mediations(padlet.com/symjubilee)
Mother’s Message was of great intensity, “If you know how to overcome the fear of others in the encounter, you too can become missionaries of peace in your daily life, among people, and within history. Be missionaries of peace in the realities to which you will return!”
Fr. Fabio Attard concluded the solemn moment thus, “I can summarize the message developed in recent days in two words: the encounter and light, which become testimony. The testimony is what Pope Leo indicated to us, to be builders and artisans of peace. Being missionaries of hope means being #peacebuilders. Sow peace; you will reap fruits of hope.”
The moment of sending, followed by the Holy Mass celebrated by the Councilor for Youth Ministry, concluded the SYM Jubilee and the young people, with their flags and colored t-shirts, left for Tor Vergata, merging, with typical Salesian joy, in the caravans of cheering pilgrims towards the meeting with Pope Leo XIV.
Photos: Flickr FMA
