Pope Francis on Friday welcomed a group of children and young people from the Italian Union of Blind and Partially Sighted People in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, encouraging them to be pilgrims of hope during the 2025 Jubilee Year.
At the beginning of his Jan. 3 audience, the Holy Father encouraged those present to repeat the “Pilgrims of Hope” theme of the 2025 Jubilee, getting louder and louder each time until he was satisfied with their enthusiastic response and congratulated them with a “bravo!”
Pope Francis then encouraged them to be “people on the journey” who always have the desire to continue, “never stopping, never arriving, always with the desire to move forward.”
In his talk, the pontiff recalled that a pilgrim is more than a traveler, because he has a particular goal: “A holy place, which draws him, which motivates him, which sustains him in his fatigue.”
In the case of the ordinary Jubilee of 2025, he said, the goal is a Holy Door “that allows us to enter into new life, free from the slavery of sin, free to love and serve God and neighbor.”
The pilgrim is also distinguished from the traveller, the pope said, because he is eager “to encounter Jesus, to know him, to listen to his word, which gives meaning to life, which fills it with a distinct joy, a joy that does not remain ‘outside,’ on the surface, but fills the heart and warms it, a joy that is peace, goodness, tenderness.”
Pope Francis then proposed examples of saints who show that “only Jesus can give this joy,” citing Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who is scheduled to be canonized this year; St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi; and St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus.
The pontiff concluded by saying that pilgrims of hope are “children and young people who have encountered the Lord Jesus and have journeyed with him, and he is the hope for every man, for every woman, and also for the world.”
By following this path, Pope Francis added, “we too will become small signs of hope for those we meet.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
