(ZENIT News / Rome 05.15.2025).- Rome is preparing to welcome nearly 100,000 pilgrims from over 100 countries for a three-day Jubilee dedicated to Confraternities, from May 16 to 18. The event, steeped in devotional fervor and marked by both spiritual depth and breathtaking pageantry, will culminate with the inaugural papal Mass of Pope Leo XIV.
While many papal jubilees have focused on bishops, priests, or lay movements, this one centers on Confraternities—those time-honored brotherhoods and sisterhoods that for centuries have embodied popular piety, sacred tradition, and communal service in Catholic life. What sets this occasion apart is not only the sheer international diversity of its participants—from Ethiopia to Australia, Colombia to the Czech Republic—but also the unprecedented cultural and spiritual exchange it represents.
The Jubilee opens Friday with coordinated pilgrimages to the Holy Doors of Rome’s four Papal Basilicas, a sacred rite of passage that expresses the penitential and grace-filled character of the Jubilee Year. But it is Friday evening’s welcome celebration at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran—featuring testimonies, prayer, and music from the choir led by Monsignor Marco Frisina—that will begin knitting these global communities into one spiritual family.
Representatives from across Europe’s vast constellation of Confraternities will address the assembly, reinforcing a shared identity rooted in centuries of living tradition.
Saturday brings what is widely anticipated to be the heart of the Jubilee: a two-pronged, grand-scale procession through the streets of central Rome—an event rarely seen on this magnitude. For the first time, iconic processional statues from Spain’s Semana Santa will travel to the Eternal City: the hauntingly realistic “Cristo del Cachorro” of Seville and the elaborately adorned “Virgen de la Esperanza” of Málaga. Both works are revered symbols of faith and artistry, carried on massive platforms by dozens—sometimes hundreds—of porters.
These images, already on display within St. Peter’s Basilica since May 13, will be joined by sacred figures from Portugal, France, Italy, and the Vatican itself. Among them: the Crucifix of Mafra, the Madonna Addolorata of Enna, and the Dévot Christ of Perpignan. Each carries its own regional history, iconographic style, and devotional following.
The two processions—one commencing from Piazza Celimontana, the other from Largo Cavalieri di Colombo—will converge symbolically at the Circus Maximus, Rome’s ancient chariot-racing stadium now transformed into a modern cathedral of public faith. Tourists and Romans alike are expected to line the procession routes, as faith traditions once confined to local contexts become part of a grand Catholic mosaic.
The Jubilee will conclude with a profound moment of ecclesial unity: the participation of all Confraternity members, in their full ceremonial garb, at the Papal Mass on Sunday morning in St. Peter’s Square. The liturgy marks not only the end of the Jubilee but also the official beginning of Pope Leo XIV’s ministry as Bishop of Rome.
No tickets are required for the event—an intentional gesture of openness that mirrors the universal welcome the Confraternities themselves embody.
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