Quest'anno, il Vaticano celebra il Giubileo con il tema: Pellegrini della speranza. Il tema della speranza è nato il 9 maggio 2024 da Papa Francesco. Il Papa desiderava che tutti i cattolici ricevessero un tono spirituale di speranza e consapevolezza dell'amore infinito di Dio. Papa Francesco ha affermato che ogni cattolico soffre da tempo di una stanchezza spirituale che può portare a sentimenti di delusione, pessimismo e cinismo. Con l'uso del termine "pellegrini", il Giubileo simboleggia che i cattolici sono il popolo che cammina insieme di fronte alla promessa di Dio.
In 2025, the Catholic Church will celebrate a Jubilee Year with the unifying and deeply resonant theme: Pilgrims of Hope. At the heart of this Holy Year lies a call from the late Pope Francis for the faithful, and all people of goodwill, to rediscover the transformative power of hope, even amid uncertainty, discouragement, and the many trials of modern life.
The Jubilee was formally announced with the papal bull Spes Non Confundit, Latin for "Hope does not disappoint", issued on May 9, 2024. This title is drawn from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans (5:5), a passage that Pope Francis used to frame the spiritual tone of the year ahead. In it, he reminded believers that hope is not a fleeting feeling but a profound assurance anchored in God's love.
“Everyone knows what it is to hope,” Pope Francis wrote. “In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring.” He acknowledged the emotional complexity of the human experience – how hope often mingles with anxiety, trust with hesitation. In today’s world, where conflict, climate anxiety, and economic inequality weigh heavily on people’s hearts, hope can seem like a fragile thing. Yet the Jubilee calls us back to this essential virtue.
The Holy Father was acutely aware of the spiritual fatigue many people feel. He described a modern culture often marked by “discouraged, pessimistic and cynical” attitudes toward the future. To that, the Jubilee offers a remedy: an invitation to spiritual renewal. “For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope. God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope,” he wrote.
Hope, Pope Francis emphasized, is inseparable from patience, a virtue he said is sorely tested in today’s “fast-paced world,” where immediacy and instant gratification have become norms. In Spes Non Confundit, he challenged Catholics to see patience not as passive endurance but as an active and hopeful waiting – an expression of trust that God is at work even in silence and delay.
By calling the faithful “pilgrims,” the Jubilee theme reminds the Church of its identity as a journeying people, not fixed in place or final answers, but moving steadily, together, toward the fullness of God's promise. Pilgrimages have always been an outward sign of an inner journey, and in this Jubilee, Catholics are encouraged to walk with open hearts toward God, toward one another, and toward a more just and compassionate world.
As the Church opened the Holy Door and welcomes pilgrims from all corners of the globe, the theme Pilgrims of Hope became more than a slogan. It is a summons to walk together, to carry each other’s burdens, and above all, to trust that even in the darkest seasons, “hope does not disappoint.”
