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Herald Malaysia
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Herald Malaysia
The Church prepares its first Jubilee for Catholic influencers
Rome prepares to host thousands of digital missionaries for a landmark gathering of prayer, formation, and fraternity on July 28–29. Jul 16, 2025 file photo of digital missionaries meeting to prepare for Jubilee By Sebastián Sansón FerrariFor the first time in its history, the Catholic Church will celebrate a Jubilee event within a Holy Year specifically dedicated to digital missionaries and Catholic influencers, formally recognising the digital environment as a true field of mission. The gathering will take place in Rome on July 28 and 29, 2025, coinciding with the opening days of the Youth Jubilee. Many young people who evangelise through social media will be actively involved in both celebrations. This unprecedented initiative, organised by the Dicastery for Communication, will bring together nearly one thousand digital missionaries from around the world, with strong representation from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain. These evangelizers proclaim the joy of the Gospel through social media, video platforms, blogs, and apps, offering a creative, accessible, and engaged Christian witness within the digital continent. For those unable to travel to the Eternal City, parallel virtual events will be offered through registration at the official website allowing many others to participate from their local contexts of mission. While in-person registration has closed, participants are still welcome to join online. The two main formative sessions of the Jubilee will also be livestreamed via the YouTube channel La Iglesia Te Escucha ("The Church Listens to You"). This initiative emerged in response to Pope Francis' call during the Synod on Synodality (2021–2024), which emphasised the importance of bringing the Good News into the digital world and ensuring no one is excluded from the synodal journey. It stands as a clear expression of a missionary Church, one that reaches out to the existential peripheries of contemporary society. Spirituality, formation, celebration The Jubilee program will unfold in three key phases. The spiritual component centres on the pilgrimage through the Holy Door—a hallmark of every Holy Year and a sign of interior renewal and openness to grace. This will be followed by a formative phase, featuring keynote presentations, workshops, and testimonies at the Auditorium Conciliazione. These sessions aim to provide pastoral tools for digital mission and foster spaces for shared reflection. The final phase will be a celebratory moment: a festival in Piazza Risorgimento highlighting art, music, and creativity as dynamic languages of evangelisation and communion in the digital sphere. Both venues are within walking distance of St. Peter's Square. Compassionate evangelisation in the digital space This Jubilee answers Pope Francis' invitation to be 'Good Samaritans' in the digital world. The Holy Father has urged the faithful to inhabit online spaces with compassion, humanity, and closeness, not merely through functional or technical presence, but through a pastoral approach of hope. He has repeatedly emphasised the need for a communication that listens, amplifies the voices of the voiceless, and disarms words marked by division or hostility—a theme also echoed by Pope Leo XIV in his first meeting with media professionals. The Jubilee also builds upon the first global gathering of digital evangelizers, held during World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023. That event gave rise to an international network of missionaries, which is now being strengthened and projected toward the future through this Jubilee initiative. In the coming days, the Jubilee's official website will release a dedicated spiritual guide to help participants prepare internally for the event. Promotional materials and graphic resources are already available for download to inspire and support the missionary dimension of participants, whether in Rome or in the digital peripheries. A hymn that unites voices and cultures One of the highlights of the Jubilee's preparation has been the release of its official hymn, Todos ("Everyone"). The song is a collaborative project uniting Catholic artists from around the globe. The title Todos echoes Pope Francis' powerful affirmation during World Youth Day in Lisbon on August 3, 2023: 'In the Church, there is room for everyone, everyone, everyone!' The hymn captures the inclusive, synodal, and missionary spirit that animates this Jubilee.--Vatican News
Herald Malaysia
28-04-2025
- General
- Herald Malaysia
Participants in Youth Jubilee take part in 'Via Lucis'
Participants in Youth Jubilee take part in 'Via Lucis' Thousands of young people from around the world, in Rome for their Jubilee and to pay their respects to Pope Francis, gather to pray the 'Via Lucis', reflecting on the Resurrection. Apr 28, 2025 The Via Lucis for the Jubilee of Young People VATICAN: "Dear young people, let us experience the joy of your Jubilee of Young People by retracing some of the stages of the Via Lucis: the journey of the Risen Christ together with his disciples. Our life is full of joys and sorrows, questions and queries, but also expectations and hopes.' With these words, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation welcomed the tens of thousands of teenagers who had arrived in Rome for the Jubilee of Young People. At 6pm, they all gathered at the Steps of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in southern Rome to experience the first event of their Jubilee: the Via Lucis, a prayer initiative begun in 1988 by the Salesians which takes inspiration from the "Via Crucis", or stations of the cross, but focuses on the Resurrection. Songs, prayers, meditations After having travelled to St Peter's to pay their respects to Pope Francis, the young people travelled to the south of Rome. They waved flags, sang together with the choir of the Diocese of Rome and above all prayed during this special moment in the life of the universal Church. A youth theatre troupe read the passages of the seven stations of the 'Via Lucis', and meditations taken from the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. With the background music, the icon of the Virgin was enthroned and the unforgettable song of the 2000 World Youth Day - Jesus Christ you are my life - was sung. "The Via Lucis, taking inspiration from the stages of the Lenten Way of the Cross, retraces the encounters of the risen Jesus with the eyewitnesses to the resurrection, from Easter Day to Pentecost," explains Fr Massimo Tellan, the Roman parish priest who organised the prayer moment. Living grief with hope The Paschal Candle was present next to the Pope's coffin last Wednesday as it was translated to St Peter's, and it was also present for the Via Lucis, where seven torches were lit from its flame. "For us believers, a funeral is an accompaniment towards the Father's house," Don Massimo goes on to explain, "and being able to pray with this perspective helps the young people to see this moment of transition and pain in the light of the Hope that does not disappoint, which is Christ himself".--Vatican News
