With this phrase, Pope Francis begins the papal bull introducing the Jubilee Year 2025. 

Hope — and being “pilgrims of hope” — is the central theme of the jubilee year. The official logo features a row of four stylized figures floating on water, each one in a different color and embracing the next. The figure leading the pack clings to a cross, at the bottom of which is an anchor, a symbol of hope. 

Our world is inundated with a seemingly endless list of challenges and concerns: the omnipresence of A.I., the vulnerability of creation, a “throw-away culture,” disrespect for the sacredness of human life at all stages, divisive partisan political rhetoric, the devastation of wars and violence, the scourge of human trafficking, natural disasters, severe malnutrition, famine and a consistent rise in the rate of suicide. 

In such a world, does not everyone seek some glimmer of hope?

On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis will walk through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica and usher in the jubilee year. 

Everyone seeks a hope that will not disappoint! The source of this hope is love “springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross” (“Spes non confundit,” 3). 

In October, Pope Francis published an encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, “Dilexit nos” (“He loved us”). It is my hope that our rediscovery of this devotion, a relationship with Jesus in his Sacred Heart, will enable and encourage us to be missionaries of true hope in our world.

I plan to devote my column throughout this upcoming jubilee year to an understanding of the virtue of hope and its integral connection with the mission and work of CNEWA.

CNEWA as an agency of hope, with our partners and collaborators, is evident as you read ONE. 

In April, Michael J. La Civita, director of communications and marketing, and I traveled with Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and chair of CNEWA, to the West Bank, where we witnessed the work of Pontifical Mission, CNEWA’s operating agency in the Middle East, in action.

In July, Tresool Singh-Conway, chief financial officer, Thomas Varghese, director of programs, and I visited the Dbayeh refugee camp just outside Beirut. We participated in a day devoted to identifying signs of the horror of human trafficking, especially among children and young women. We experienced the work of CNEWA-Pontifical Mission at the refugee camp. 

Then, in October, Mr. Varghese and I traveled to Ethiopia. In the north, along with Argaw Fantu, CNEWA’s regional director in Ethiopia, we met with Abune Tesfaselassie Medhin of Adigrat, who shared his experience of the great courage and heroism of his priests during the horrific two-year conflict in the Tigray region. We also met with Abune Lukas Teshome Fikre Woldetensae of Emdibir and a group of his priests. They all expressed gratitude to CNEWA for our role in the support of their priestly formation.

Let’s journey together as “pilgrims of hope.” I invite you to join our eight-day CNEWA Pilgrimage of Hope to Rome, 26 April through 3 May. Please visit petersway.com/cnewa.html or email us at info@cnewa.org to request a brochure and view our itinerary. The pilgrimage will offer time for prayer and solidarity and will serve as an important fundraising opportunity for all our efforts!

With my gratitude and prayers,

Peter I. Vaccari 

President

The Jubilee Prayer

Father in heaven, 

may the faith you have given us

in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother,

and the flame of charity enkindled

in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,

reawaken in us the blessed hope

for the coming of your Kingdom.

May your grace transform us 

into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel.

May those seeds transform from within 
both humanity and the whole cosmos

in the sure expectation

of a new heaven and a new earth,

when, with the powers of Evil vanquished,

your glory will shine eternally.

May the grace of the Jubilee

reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,

a yearning for the treasures of heaven.

May that same grace spread

the joy and peace of our Redeemer

throughout the earth.

To you, our God, eternally blessed,

be glory and praise forever. 

Amen.

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