Jubilee Easter in Rome

On our cover for this April 2025 issue is the author, Christopher White, photographed by Lola Gomez

AMID the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Pope Francis celebrated a remarkably scaled-back Easter celebration. Sickness was raging throughout the world, economies were collapsing and a sense of desperation and fatigue had become the dominant mood around the globe. But in an austere liturgical ceremony – without the thousands of pilgrims that normally gather in Rome to ring in the holiday – Pope Francis insisted that despite such grief and suffering, Easter is a season of hope.

“Jesus wants us to bring hope there, to our everyday life,” the Pope said during a Mass in an empty St. Peter’s Basilica. “Dear sister, dear brother, even if in your heart you have buried hope, do not give up: God is greater. Darkness and death do not have the last word. Be strong, for with God nothing is lost!”

“Today, as pilgrims in search of hope, we cling to you, Risen Jesus,” he continued. “We turn our backs on death and open our hearts to you, for you are Life itself.”

Millions expected

Hope was a counterintuitive theme in 2020, with the world battling a once-in-a-century pandemic, and doom and gloom being the theme du jour. But for the Pope, it was the only message worth offering. As the quote attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo goes: “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song!” And even during Easter of 2020 the Pope was not tired of reminding the world of that.

Five years later much has changed. The spread of the disease has been tamed and international travel is back with a vengeance, no more so than in the Eternal City, where throughout the year ahead, over 30 million tourists are expected to pass through Rome for the 2025 Jubilee Year.

Pope Francis officially inaugurated the Jubilee when he opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve in December. For its theme, he chose to return to a theme that remains resonant: hope. And while Easter is always the high point in the Church’s calendar, an Easter during a Jubilee Year will provide the Pope an occasion to spotlight that theme for a world in need of it.

Focus on prisoners

Holy Week begins with the Palm Sunday Mass – the longest and most dramatic of the liturgical celebrations on the Vatican’s calendar. Francis, as usual, is expected to preside over the outdoor service in St. Peter’s Square. While the 88-year-old Pope will not process, he will don his red vestments, signifying the Lord’s suffering, and look out on the square as a dramatic procession of palm branches kicks off the week ahead.

On Holy Thursday (or Maundy Thursday, as it is often called), the Catholic Church recalls Christ’s washing the feet of his disciples – an act of great service that preceded his ultimate sacrifice in his crucifixion.

Since the start of his papacy, Pope Francis has celebrated the liturgy not at the Vatican, but going to one of Rome’s prisons to wash the feet of prisoners as a way to highlight society’s most marginalized. His very first Easter at the Vatican – just weeks after being elected pope – Francis traveled to Casal del Marmo prison on the outskirts of Rome and broke with tradition by washing the feet of two female prisoners.

This Jubilee Year, however, the ceremony is likely to be even more meaningful to the Pope, who has called for a special focus on prisoners throughout the Holy Year. On December 26, just one day after opening the Vatican’s Holy Door, the Pope traveled to Rome’s Rebibbia Prison, where he made history by becoming the first pope to ever open a Holy Door at a prison.

Despite the circumstances of their incarceration and their lengthy sentences, the Pope said it was incumbent not to lose hope.

“When one’s heart is closed, it becomes hard like stone; it forgets tenderness,” the Pope said.

“I like to think of hope as the anchor that is on the shore and, with the rope, we are safe. Do not lose hope: this is the message I want to give you, to give all of us… because hope never disappoints,” the Pope continued. “In bad moments, we can all think that everything is over. Do not lose hope. This is the message I wanted to give you. Do not lose hope.”

Christ is risen!

Good Friday will bring a doubleheader: the somber liturgy of the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord will take place in St. Peter’s Basilica, and in the evening the Way of the Cross (or the Via Crucis) will take place at Rome’s Colosseum.

Given the Pontiff’s history with respiratory challenges – and that the event takes place at night and in potentially cool temperatures – Francis has not been able to attend the past two years. With or without the Pope, the ceremony goes on with torches filling the night sky as the cross makes its way to each of the fourteen stations, memorializing Christ’s passion.

Past years have included meditations reflecting on themes close to the Pope’s heart – such as the scourge of human trafficking or the world at war. This year’s Jubilee will likely mean special reflections on many of the Holy Year’s major themes, including debt relief, concern for prisoners, alleviating poverty and, of course, hope.

At the start of the Easter Vigil on Saturday night, a fire will be lit outside of the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica – meant to signal new life and hope. From there, the fire will light the Easter Candle, which will be processed into the Basilica; later, the Basilica will be filled with light and the sound of bells as the Easter celebrations get underway.

On Sunday morning, those celebrations will continue in an outdoor Easter Mass. Against a backdrop of thousands of fresh flowers that are donated annually from the Netherlands, Pope Francis will lead the faithful from around the world in proclaiming that “Christ is risen, he is risen, indeed!”

Christian unity

Recent years have drawn crowds of over 100,000 Mass-goers that have filled St. Peter’s Square and up the via della Conciliazione, the main road that leads to the Vatican. But given the significance of the Jubilee Year, that number is expected to swell even higher this year, and the city is likely to be at maximum capacity.

At the conclusion of the Mass – and after the Pope likely takes a customary ride in his pope-mobile to greet the throngs of people – he will ascend to the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, where he will offer his Urbi et Orbi blessing (“to the city and the world”). Here, the Pope usually highlights areas of conflict around the globe that are in special need of Easter hope.

The Holy Father will have an extra special occasion for hope this year, as by coincidence – or providence – Catholics and Orthodox Christians share a common date for Easter this year. Finding a permanent common date for the Churches to celebrate Easter has been a renewed goal for recent popes, and Francis is trying to use the momentum of the Jubilee Year to make it happen.

In January, during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the Pope reiterated that if the Eastern Churches can come to an agreement on a common date, the Roman Catholic Church will accept it and adjust its calendar accordingly. One month after Easter Sunday 2025, Francis is expected to travel to Turkey to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea at a major ecumenical gathering, which he hopes will further harness the cause of Christian unity.

Time of uncertainty

Overshadowing this year’s Easter celebrations – and the Jubilee Year as a whole – is the fragile health of Pope Francis. As we go to print, he remains in critical condition at the Gemelli Hospital, and the Holy Week schedule may see significant changes. The demands of the Jubilee calendar had already tested the Pope in the early months of this Holy Year: in January, at a Jubilee gathering for Catholic communicators, he opted not to deliver his prepared speech. In February, he was unable to finish reading his homily at a Mass for members of the armed forces; eventually, on the 14th of that month, he was admitted to the hospital due to breathing difficulties. As we approach this sacred time, let us remain united in faith, trusting in God’s providence amid this moment of uncertainty.