The city of Rome is preparing for Jubilee 2025 and the first pilgrims are Romans and visitors, forced to look for an open road between one construction site and another. The city is preparing to receive over 30 million presences, which Pope Francis calls “pilgrims of hope”.
In the last two months I have encountered many pilgrims of hope.
Crossing Mexico, I could see how pilgrims of hope are first of all the many migrants from South America to Central America trying to reach their hoped-for destination, the United States. A painful pilgrimage, often with broken hopes, because death stops many. There are also the "pilgrims" among the too many phenomena of social insecurity. At the same time, I was struck by the welcome and joy of that people. I wonder: what to learn from them, what step to take with them as pilgrims of hope?
I then went to Chile, where society, the Church and even religious life were very deeply hurt by the abuse scandals. I participated in the Chapter of Mats of our brothers and I saw the concrete steps of hope in a brotherhood that restarts the journey, that tries to look beyond and open up to the mission. I learn that even from the deepest wounds a step of hope can come.
After a few days, I found myself in the Czech Republic and Poland, post-communist societies in profound change. The Czech Republic is very secularized and Poland is experiencing a difficult transition. Pilgrims of hope means here not closing yourself in the nostalgia of the past, but living the present with passion and looking forward. I have encountered not a few signs of this new beginning, even among our brothers.
My pilgrimage continued between Ireland, Croatia and Bosnia, very different countries, but united by a past in which faith had to face clandestinity and martyrdom. These peoples, who today face completely new situations in different ways. Ireland is a post-secular society, where the Church is a minority, looking for a new way to express faith. Our friars, now few, have developed a life project adapted to their reality: a few essential points, but animated by the hope of those who look ahead.
In Zagreb I was able to inaugurate with the friars the Kaptol convent, which rose after the earthquake, an important meeting point for the city, a light hope for the future. Crossing into Bosnia then, I saw the reality of depopulation, of reduction especially of Catholics. I was touched by the tenacity of these people, bound to their land and of our friars to their people. Here too pilgrims of hope means looking forward, overcoming the many fences, seeking reconciliation and building the future, even if it will be very small.
I return to Rome, I still come across the construction sites that fill the city, but I know that a different path is possible. I learn it from so many people in the world, pilgrims of hope.
