Latest news with #HolyYear
Herald Malaysia
11 hours ago
- Herald Malaysia
Bringing the hopes of young South Africans to the Jubilee
A bishop and young person from South Africa share how young people have been preparing to attend the Jubilee of Youth in Rome from July 28 to August 3, despite challenges and issues. Jul 24, 2025 Young people in the Archdiocese of Pretoria, South Africa By Isabella H. de Carvalho'We've already started packing our bags, we can't wait to travel!'. Gladness Mashumbuka Lobina's excitement is palpable over the phone, as she speaks to Vatican News at the end of July, a week before she is due to travel to Italy. The 35-year-old Youth Commission Chairperson, from the Archdiocese of Pretoria, is one of almost 160 young people coming from South Africa, Botswana and Eswatini to attend the Jubilee of Youth, taking place in Rome from July 28 to August 3. Despite 70% of sub-Saharan Africans being under the age of 30, making Africa the continent with the youngest population in the world, many young people had difficulties raising money to be able to fund the pilgrimage to Rome. Nonetheless, the dioceses have been organizing many activities and events for people to experience this Holy Year locally and the youth who are coming are taking the dreams and aspirations of their cohort with them and hope to return to their respective countries with a newfound energy. 'The youth has prepared well during this Jubilee Year', Bishop Siphiwo Paul Vanqa of Queenstown, South Africa, told Vatican News in an interview. As the Liason for Youth of the Southern African Bishops' Conference (SACBC) - which covers South Africa, Botswana and Eswatini - he has seen the preparations for the Jubilee up close. 'The jubilar theme 'pilgrims of hope' has very much been taken on in the dioceses of southern Africa', he explained, adding that between 2000 and 3000 young people attended a local youth pilgrimage earlier in the year. Organizing events to prepare for the Jubilee Year Gladness has seen the same level of enthusiasm in her own diocese, where the Youth Commission launched the initiative 'A Road to the Youth Jubilee' featuring different activities and projects. These included masses, rosaries and other spiritual events centered around 'pilgrim symbols' that travelled around the Archdiocese of Pretoria, novenas and social media campaigns focusing on the Holy Year, and monthly meetings with discussions on different topics from the perspective of the theme 'pilgrims of hope'. These subjects ranged from reflecting on what it means to be a pilgrim, to focusing on serious issues that affect South Africa, such as gender-based violence and femicide. During those events for example 'we would also hold special prayers, as pilgrims of hope, to remember those who lost their lives because of gender-based violence and femicide. We would pray for them and their loved ones but also for the conversion of the perpetrators', Gladness said. Some parishes have also launched their own initiatives to prepare for the Jubilee, such as helping the elderly as part of living the Holy Year concretely. 'It has been quite an amazing journey, young people are excited', she continued. 'It is so refreshing to see the youth wanting to do more for the Church'. Taking the hopes of their cohort with them Gladness and her travel companions will be in fact taking with them the aspirations of their fellow young South Africans who will not be able to attend. During one of the preparatory events in the Archdiocese 'we had this hope room where the young people could write down their dreams and aspirations on a 'hope cloth'. At the Mass with the Holy Father we will carry this cloth with the intentions of our fellow young people here in South Africa to pray for them', she explained. 'We hope that God will indeed grant them their aspirations, their dreams and their hopes'. These different initiatives are also a way to help whoever can't travel to Rome to live the experience of the Jubilee locally. 'We're trying to encourage the young people and show them that, even if you can't afford to go to Rome, in your own space you can be a 'pilgrim of hope',' Gladness said. The challenges faced In fact, in a country like South Africa where over half the population lives below the poverty line and wealth inequalities are stark, many could not gather enough funds to come to Rome. 'There are some dioceses that aren't sending anyone because they couldn't fundraise enough', Bishop Vanqa said, highlighting that even his own diocese was unable to send pilgrims to the event due to economic limitations. Gladness echoed similar issues. 'Finances have been one of the major challenges as most of our pilgrims come from modest families', she said. However, she underlined that several young people did organize fundraising initiatives to raise money, such as making and selling rosaries. For her, another stressful aspect of this trip was visa application processes as 'they were quite lengthy, with tight timelines and some backlog'. About half her group was still waiting on their visas a week before their trip. Gladness' positivity is, however, unshakeable: 'the logistics just require a lot of dedication and teamwork, but we are winning, regardless of the challenges. This is what gives us the reassurance that God has been with us from the start of the process up until now'. A young and energetic population despite the issues Gladness acknowledges that being a young person in South Africa is not easy. 'It's challenging considering the socioeconomic issues of our country. Our unemployment rate is very high, which affects our young people', she explained. The youth unemployment rate in the first half of 2025 was 46%, according to the South African Department of Statistics. Gladness also highlighted other problems such as gender-based violence or mental health issues. However, she also insists that there are a lot of opportunities. With the median age in the country being 30-years-old, young people are very 'energetic and full of life', she said. She for example highlighted that many young people in the Church are active in trying to organize career events or other initiatives that can help respond to the needs of the youth. 'We also have democracy and freedom of rights, we can express ourselves and practise our faith freely', she underlined. 'There are challenges that as young people we find ourselves exposed to. But I believe, as we are pilgrims of hope, we will continue to be hopeful as hope does not disappoint', she said, citing St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians. Coming back with a new energy This type of energy is what Bishop Vanqa has seen young people take back to their countries after other pilgrimages and he hopes this Youth Jubilee will produce the same effect. 'They come back from these trips rejuvenated and re-energised', he said. 'They can always help us to give that spark to others to love and work for the Church. […] The young people can also share with others their experiences'. 'I'm looking forward to participating in the mass with the Holy Father and doing a pilgrimage to the Holy Doors, to pray at the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul', Gladness said. 'For our young people, most of us, we're just looking forward to our faith being renewed'.--Vatican News
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Rome gears up for Holy Year's monumental Catholic youth rally in scorching temperatures
ROME (AP) — Half a million young people are expected to pour into Rome next week for the biggest event of the 2025 Holy Year: a weeklong Jubilee celebration for young Catholics that will sorely test their tolerance for heat and the Eternal City's ability to provide public services, security and logistical support during its peak tourist season. Officials said Wednesday the highlight of the celebration is the Aug. 2-3 vigil service, outdoor overnight slumber party and Mass presided over by Pope Leo XIV, the first mass gathering for history's first American pope. It's being held on the same dusty field on the outskirts of Rome where St. John Paul II led the 2000 World Youth Day, an even larger gathering of some 2 million young Catholics in that millennial Jubilee year. With temperatures next weekend expected between 32C to 34C (90F to 93F), organizers have lined up five million bottles of water, 2,660 drinking water stations and 70 giant water cannons that are normally used for dust control during building demolitions to spritz the young pilgrims to try to keep them cool. After attending a week of events in Rome's center, they will begin arriving at the Tor Vergata field on Saturday afternoon and spend the night there before the morning Mass Sunday, with access in and out requiring a 5 kilometer hike at minimum from the nearest public transport hub. A massive security and logistical setup Italian and Vatican organizers on Wednesday outlined plans for the gathering, which Rome authorities said represented the biggest technological setup ever in Italy. Four thousand police and firefighters have been called up to provide security, with Spanish, French and Polish law enforcement agencies sending teams to help out, given the large number of pilgrims expected from those countries. Officials are closing the airspace over the Tor Vergata field to civilian aircraft and drones, and 122 surveillance cameras have been set up to keep watch on the proceedings. 'This is an event that because of its importance requires exceptional security measures,' Rome Prefect Lamberto Giannini told a Vatican press conference. 'We don't have any signs of negative attention to the event, but the international situation, the various tensions and the magnitude, significance and beauty of the event require us to be very careful.' Some 68% of the young people who registered to attend hail from European countries, though pilgrims from 146 countries are expected, said the Vatican's Jubilee chief, Archbishop Rino Fisichella. A Jubilee that resembles a World Youth Day The youth Jubilee comes at the halfway point in the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year, a once-every-quarter-century celebration of Catholicism that brings millions of pilgrims to Rome. Fisichella said 17 million pilgrims had attended Jubilee events so far in 2025, representing more than half the 32 million expected. The event has assumed many characteristics of a World Youth Day, the Catholic youth rally taking place every three years that was launched by John Paul and maintained by every pope since. Heat waves and the invariable health issues that accompany them have become an integral part of youth days, since they are always scheduled during summer when young people are typically on vacation. But such Catholic Woodstocks have also produced some of the most memorable papal moments. Many faithful still remember John Paul telling the youngsters at Tor Vergata in 2000 that they were 'sentinels of the morning' at the dawn of the third millennium, Pope Benedict XVI braving a violent storm in Madrid in 2011 to continue praying, and Pope Francis telling young people in Lisbon in 2023 that everyone -- 'todos, todos, todos' – is welcome in the Catholic Church. The yearlong Jubilee, which was preceded by two years of intense construction projects around Rome, has added even more strain on Rome's public services beyond the normal tourist high season. To spare the congested city center, some 20,000 people will be housed on the grounds of Rome's old convention center on the city's outskirts, while another 40,000 will be housed in some of the 429-plus schools and 360 parishes around Rome that have offered to take them in. In addition to law enforcement, 3,000 civil protection volunteers, 500 Vatican volunteers and 4,300 Jubilee 'stewards' will be on hand to shepherd the young people around. A medevac helicopter, 43 ambulances, and 10 mobile health positions will be at the Tor Vergata field in case pilgrims fall ill. Rome's notoriously insufficient public transport system is being reinforced to provide nearly around-the-clock service and sanitation workers are clocking overtime to the tune of 4,600 shifts. There will be 2,760 portable toilets, plus 158 for disabled people, spread over the event space of 52 hectares (128 acres), officials said. ___
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Rome gears up for Holy Year's monumental Catholic youth rally in scorching temperatures
Half a million young people are expected to pour into Rome next week for the biggest event of the 2025 Holy Year: a weeklong Jubilee celebration for young Catholics that will sorely test their tolerance for heat and the Eternal City's ability to provide public services, security and logistical support during its peak tourist season. Officials said Wednesday the highlight of the celebration is the Aug. 2-3 vigil service, outdoor overnight slumber party and Mass presided over by Pope Leo XIV, the first mass gathering for history's first American pope. It's being held on the same dusty field on the outskirts of Rome where St. John Paul II led the 2000 World Youth Day, an even larger gathering of some 2 million young Catholics in that millennial Jubilee year. With temperatures next weekend expected between 32C to 34C (90F to 93F), organizers have lined up five million bottles of water, 2,660 drinking water stations and 70 giant water cannons that are normally used for dust control during building demolitions to spritz the young pilgrims to try to keep them cool. After attending a week of events in Rome's center, they will begin arriving at the Tor Vergata field on Saturday afternoon and spend the night there before the morning Mass Sunday, with access in and out requiring a 5 kilometer hike at minimum from the nearest public transport hub. A massive security and logistical setup Italian and Vatican organizers on Wednesday outlined plans for the gathering, which Rome authorities said represented the biggest technological setup ever in Italy. Four thousand police and firefighters have been called up to provide security, with Spanish, French and Polish law enforcement agencies sending teams to help out, given the large number of pilgrims expected from those countries. Officials are closing the airspace over the Tor Vergata field to civilian aircraft and drones, and 122 surveillance cameras have been set up to keep watch on the proceedings. 'This is an event that because of its importance requires exceptional security measures,' Rome Prefect Lamberto Giannini told a Vatican press conference. 'We don't have any signs of negative attention to the event, but the international situation, the various tensions and the magnitude, significance and beauty of the event require us to be very careful.' Some 68% of the young people who registered to attend hail from European countries, though pilgrims from 146 countries are expected, said the Vatican's Jubilee chief, Archbishop Rino Fisichella. A Jubilee that resembles a World Youth Day The youth Jubilee comes at the halfway point in the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year, a once-every-quarter-century celebration of Catholicism that brings millions of pilgrims to Rome. Fisichella said 17 million pilgrims had attended Jubilee events so far in 2025, representing more than half the 32 million expected. The event has assumed many characteristics of a World Youth Day, the Catholic youth rally taking place every three years that was launched by John Paul and maintained by every pope since. Heat waves and the invariable health issues that accompany them have become an integral part of youth days, since they are always scheduled during summer when young people are typically on vacation. But such Catholic Woodstocks have also produced some of the most memorable papal moments. Many faithful still remember John Paul telling the youngsters at Tor Vergata in 2000 that they were 'sentinels of the morning' at the dawn of the third millennium, Pope Benedict XVI braving a violent storm in Madrid in 2011 to continue praying, and Pope Francis telling young people in Lisbon in 2023 that everyone -- 'todos, todos, todos' – is welcome in the Catholic Church. Volunteers, portable toilets and ambulances at the ready The yearlong Jubilee, which was preceded by two years of intense construction projects around Rome, has added even more strain on Rome's public services beyond the normal tourist high season. To spare the congested city center, some 20,000 people will be housed on the grounds of Rome's old convention center on the city's outskirts, while another 40,000 will be housed in some of the 429-plus schools and 360 parishes around Rome that have offered to take them in. In addition to law enforcement, 3,000 civil protection volunteers, 500 Vatican volunteers and 4,300 Jubilee 'stewards' will be on hand to shepherd the young people around. A medevac helicopter, 43 ambulances, and 10 mobile health positions will be at the Tor Vergata field in case pilgrims fall ill. Rome's notoriously insufficient public transport system is being reinforced to provide nearly around-the-clock service and sanitation workers are clocking overtime to the tune of 4,600 shifts. There will be 2,760 portable toilets, plus 158 for disabled people, spread over the event space of 52 hectares (128 acres), officials said. 'This collective effort is a big institutional test,' acknowledged the vice president of the Lazio region, Roberta Angelilli. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Toronto Star
a day ago
- Toronto Star
Rome gears up for Holy Year's monumental Catholic youth rally in scorching temperatures
ROME (AP) — Half a million young people are expected to pour into Rome next week for the biggest event of the 2025 Holy Year: a weeklong Jubilee celebration for young Catholics that will sorely test their tolerance for heat and the Eternal City's ability to provide public services, security and logistical support during its peak tourist season. Officials said Wednesday the highlight of the celebration is the Aug. 2-3 vigil service, outdoor overnight slumber party and Mass presided over by Pope Leo XIV, the first mass gathering for history's first American pope. It's being held on the same dusty field on the outskirts of Rome where St. John Paul II led the 2000 World Youth Day, an even larger gathering of some 2 million young Catholics in that millennial Jubilee year.
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Rome gears up for Holy Year's monumental Catholic youth rally in scorching temperatures
ROME (AP) — Half a million young people are expected to pour into Rome next week for the biggest event of the 2025 Holy Year: a weeklong Jubilee celebration for young Catholics that will sorely test their tolerance for heat and the Eternal City's ability to provide public services, security and logistical support during its peak tourist season. Officials said Wednesday the highlight of the celebration is the Aug. 2-3 vigil service, outdoor overnight slumber party and Mass presided over by Pope Leo XIV, the first mass gathering for history's first American pope. It's being held on the same dusty field on the outskirts of Rome where St. John Paul II led the 2000 World Youth Day, an even larger gathering of some 2 million young Catholics in that millennial Jubilee year. With temperatures next weekend expected between 32C to 34C (90F to 93F), organizers have lined up five million bottles of water, 2,660 drinking water stations and 70 giant water cannons that are normally used for dust control during building demolitions to spritz the young pilgrims to try to keep them cool. After attending a week of events in Rome's center, they will begin arriving at the Tor Vergata field on Saturday afternoon and spend the night there before the morning Mass Sunday, with access in and out requiring a 5 kilometer hike at minimum from the nearest public transport hub. A massive security and logistical setup Italian and Vatican organizers on Wednesday outlined plans for the gathering, which Rome authorities said represented the biggest technological setup ever in Italy. Four thousand police and firefighters have been called up to provide security, with Spanish, French and Polish law enforcement agencies sending teams to help out, given the large number of pilgrims expected from those countries. Officials are closing the airspace over the Tor Vergata field to civilian aircraft and drones, and 122 surveillance cameras have been set up to keep watch on the proceedings. 'This is an event that because of its importance requires exceptional security measures,' Rome Prefect Lamberto Giannini told a Vatican press conference. 'We don't have any signs of negative attention to the event, but the international situation, the various tensions and the magnitude, significance and beauty of the event require us to be very careful.' Some 68% of the young people who registered to attend hail from European countries, though pilgrims from 146 countries are expected, said the Vatican's Jubilee chief, Archbishop Rino Fisichella. A Jubilee that resembles a World Youth Day The youth Jubilee comes at the halfway point in the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year, a once-every-quarter-century celebration of Catholicism that brings millions of pilgrims to Rome. Fisichella said 17 million pilgrims had attended Jubilee events so far in 2025, representing more than half the 32 million expected. The event has assumed many characteristics of a World Youth Day, the Catholic youth rally taking place every three years that was launched by John Paul and maintained by every pope since. Heat waves and the invariable health issues that accompany them have become an integral part of youth days, since they are always scheduled during summer when young people are typically on vacation. But such Catholic Woodstocks have also produced some of the most memorable papal moments. Many faithful still remember John Paul telling the youngsters at Tor Vergata in 2000 that they were 'sentinels of the morning' at the dawn of the third millennium, Pope Benedict XVI braving a violent storm in Madrid in 2011 to continue praying, and Pope Francis telling young people in Lisbon in 2023 that everyone — 'todos, todos, todos' – is welcome in the Catholic Church. Volunteers, portable toilets and ambulances at the ready The yearlong Jubilee, which was preceded by two years of intense construction projects around Rome, has added even more strain on Rome's public services beyond the normal tourist high season. To spare the congested city center, some 20,000 people will be housed on the grounds of Rome's old convention center on the city's outskirts, while another 40,000 will be housed in some of the 429-plus schools and 360 parishes around Rome that have offered to take them in. In addition to law enforcement, 3,000 civil protection volunteers, 500 Vatican volunteers and 4,300 Jubilee 'stewards' will be on hand to shepherd the young people around. A medevac helicopter, 43 ambulances, and 10 mobile health positions will be at the Tor Vergata field in case pilgrims fall ill. Rome's notoriously insufficient public transport system is being reinforced to provide nearly around-the-clock service and sanitation workers are clocking overtime to the tune of 4,600 shifts. There will be 2,760 portable toilets, plus 158 for disabled people, spread over the event space of 52 hectares (128 acres), officials said. 'This collective effort is a big institutional test,' acknowledged the vice president of the Lazio region, Roberta Angelilli. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
