The Vatican revealed the official Logo of the upcoming Jubilee Year due to be held in 2025 on the theme 'Pilgrims of Hope' and reflects on some of the Holy Year's early initiatives and plans. The Logo was unveiled by the Vatican evangelization chief unveiled in a press conference held on Tuesday in the Sala Regia of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, presented the logo and the preparations for the Catholic Church’s next holy year.
The logo was chosen after a worldwide competition. Archbishop Fisichella said there were 294 entries from 48 countries entered in the logo competition. Participants ranged in age from six to 83 years old.
“In fact, many were hand-made drawings by children from all over the world, and it was truly moving to review these drawings that were the fruit of imagination and simple faith,” the archbishop said.
During the judging, the works were identified only by a number so that the author remained anonymous.
On June 11th, Archbishop Fisichella submitted the three final projects to Pope Francis to select the one that struck him the most.
"After looking at the projects several times and expressing his preference, the project of Giacomo Travisani was chosen," Archbishop Fisichella said.
Winning Logo
The Logo shows four stylized figures to indicate all of humanity from the four corners of the earth. They each embrace one another, indicating the solidarity and brotherhood that must unite peoples. The first figure is clinging to the Cross. The underlying waves are choppy to indicate that the pilgrimage of life is not always on calm waters.
Because often personal circumstances and world events call for a greater sense of hope, a description of the Logo says, the lower part of the Cross is elongated turning into an anchor, which dominates the movement of the waves.
Anchors often have been used as metaphors for hope.
The image shows how the pilgrim's journey is not individual, but rather communal, with the signs of a growing dynamism that moves more and more toward the Cross.
"The Cross is not static," Fisichella suggested, "but dynamic, bending toward and meeting humanity as if not to leave it alone, but rather offering the certainty of its presence and the reassurance of hope."
The Jubilee 2025 Motto, Peregrinantes in Spem is also clearly visible in the color green.
Jubilees' importance to life of the Church
In the Church, a Jubilee, or Holy Year, is a great religious event.
A Jubilee is “ordinary” if it falls after the customary 25-year period, and “extraordinary” when it is proclaimed by for some outstanding event.
The last ordinary Jubilee took place in the year 2000 during the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul I. In 2015, Pope Francis proclaimed an Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy.
In a recent letter addressed to Archbishop Fisichella, Pope Francis noted that “the Jubilee has always been an event of great spiritual, ecclesial, and social significance in the life of the Church.”
He recalled that ever since the year 1300, which marked the first Holy Year, "God’s holy and faithful people has experienced this celebration as a special gift of grace, characterized by the forgiveness of sins and in particular by the indulgence, which is a full expression of the mercy of God."
The Dicastery is already envisioning major events for the jubille, and highlighted that special attention will be given to the following categories: "Families, Children, Youth, Movements and Associations, Elderly, Grandparents, Disabled, Sports, Sick and Health Care, Universities, World of Work, Choirs and Choruses, Confraternities, Priests, Consecrated Persons, Eastern Catholics, Catechists, the Poor, Prisoners, and many others..."
A calendar will be ready by the end of the year so as to allow adequate organizational time for pilgrims and related agencies.
-CNA/VM