As the 2025 Jubilee officially opens in five months, on December 24, 2024, preparations are in full swing in Rome. From construction sites to housing reservations and cultural initiatives, I.Media reports on how this "Holy Year" is being organized, as millions of visitors are expected to flock to the Italian capital.
In Rome over the last few months, the Dicastery for Evangelization, the main organizer of the Jubilee, has proposed various events to prepare spiritually for the next year, particularly in the cultural sphere, such as concerts and exhibitions. Numerous dioceses around the world have joined in, launching moments of prayer in their churches, as requested by Pope Francis, the dicastery explained to I.Media.
In terms of practical preparations, over the past year the city of Rome has launched colossal works, such as making pedestrian walkways or renovating metro stations, to accommodate the more than 30 million pilgrims expected. These works have also uncovered ancient ruins in several parts of the Eternal City.
Despite the scale of the projects undertaken to improve the flow of traffic, the dicastery remains confident about the deadlines. "Recently, the Piazza Pia jubilee project reached a decisive turning point, and soon all the other projects will follow," the dicastery explained.
One of the major restructuring projects involves the creation of an underground passageway for cars between Piazza Pia, a square close to the Vatican where the Vatican News and Radio offices are, and the Via della Conciliazione, the road that leads to St. Peter's Square. This area often represents a bottleneck for the influx of traffic from the Prati neighborhood.
People are signing up to come
According to the organizers, "more and more future pilgrims are registering on the iubilaeum2025.va website for the various events planned for the jubilee year." These include individuals, families and groups from all corners of the globe.
The majority of accreditation requests so far concern the opening ceremony of the Holy Door to be presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica on December 24, and the Jubilee for the Youth (July 28, 2025), for which 150,000 participants are expected.
While registration figures remain confidential, "there are currently no indications that would make one believe that the projections [...] will not be met," the dicastery assured. The University of Roma Tre’s Sociology Faculty expects the participants to number around 32 million.
For where pilgrims can stay, the dicastery is planning partnerships with the city's accommodation facilities. For transport, a collaboration has been signed with "My Safe Place Transfer" to deal with the travel between the airports and the city center.
The full calendar of events for the whole of 2025 -- with dates for papal audiences, diocesan and national pilgrimages, etc. -- will be online in the coming weeks.
A foreseeable increase in the number of pilgrims
Travel agencies specializing in pilgrimage organization are already sensing a growing interest in the Holy Year.
"We've been working on it since July 2023," said Cédric Bloquet, director of the Bipel agency, who stressed the need for early booking of transport and accommodation in a city that has already been seeing record numbers of visitors since the end of the pandemic. "There are already areas of the calendar for which there are no longer any accommodation solutions for large groups," he noted.
However, the French agency remains attentive to market trends, which can sometimes free up supply.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, during 2018 and 2019, Bipel had taken between 6,000 and 7,000 people to the Eternal City. "We expect to accompany between 15,000 and 20,000 people during the Holy Year, i.e. three to four times more than the last reference year," explained the director, who reports having had many requests from parishes or diocesan movements.
In addition to the spiritual appeal of a Jubilee year, there are other factors that may explain this increase in visitor numbers, such as the security situation in the Holy Land since October 7, 2023, which has put a large number of travel plans to Jerusalem on hold.
Some would-be Holy Land groups and individuals naturally decide to fall back on Rome. Another factor is Pope Francis, who will be 88 next December. For some Catholics, the Holy Year will be a special opportunity to visit Rome, and perhaps see the Argentine Pontiff one last time.
