02/04/2025
DICASTERY FOR EVANGELIZATION
Section for Fundamental Questions regarding Evangelization in the World
PRESS RELEASE
ON 5 AND 6 APRIL, JUBILEE OF THE SICK AND THE WORLD OF HEALTHCARE
(Vatican City, 2 April 2025) – On Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 April, the seventh of the major Jubilee events will be held, dedicated to the sick and the world of healthcare. Approximately 20 thousand pilgrims will come to Rome, including patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and healthcare workers and technicians from over 90 countries throughout the world.
For the Jubilee of the Sick and the World of Healthcare, thousands of pilgrims will arrive in Rome from other parts of Italy. There will also be delegations from the United States, Spain, Colombia, Argentina and Brazil, and then from countries such as France, Mexico, Germany, Croatia, the Philippines, Peru, Congo, Australia, Chile, Ethiopia, Canada and Cameroon. The Italian associations present will include the Fratres delle Misericordie d’Italia, ANED (National Haemodialysis Association), the Italian Catholic Doctors’ Association, the Bambino Gesù Paediatric Hospital, the Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation, AVIS and FIDAS – Italian Blood Donors’ Association, and the National Federation of Professional Healthcare Orders.
The Jubilee event will begin in the morning of Saturday 5 April, with the possibility for all participants to make the pilgrimage, starting at 8.00, to the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica. On Saturday afternoon, the “Dialogues with the city” will return – events of a cultural, spiritual and artistic nature in the squares of the centre of Rome, organized by associations, movements and other entities. In Piazza di Spagna, at 16.00, a meeting will be held entitled “The value of giving and solidarity”, organized by the Ministry of Health, with interventions from Archbishop Fisichella, Orazio Schillaci (Ministry of Health), Roberto Gualtieri (mayor of Rome) and Francesco Rocca (president of the Latium region). From 15.00 to 18.00, at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, the conference “Hospice = Hope”, organized by the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, on the theme of palliative care, will be held. In Piazza Risorgimento, the American Heart Association will hold an event teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) manoevres, in English, Spanish, French, Polish and German.
The Fratres Association, in collaboration with the National Office for Health Pastoral Care of the Italian Episcopal Conference, will promote an event in Piazza San Giovanni to raise awareness of blood donation, with an extraordinary blood collection from 7.30 to 13.00. At the same time, in Piazza della Chiesa Nuova and Piazza San Salvatore in Lauro, some healthcare federations will offer health education activities from 8.00 to 16.00. In Piazza dell’Oro, from 16.00 to 18.00, the Office for Health Pastoral Care of the Vicariate of Rome will offer activities regarding information and raising awareness on the theme of addiction.
In the Church of Santa Monica, in Piazza Sant’Uffizio 8, from 16.00 to 17.30, a conference will be held to present Blessed Benedetta Bianchi Porri, a medical student who died from a rare disease, in dialogue with Sr. Emanuela and Don Andrea Vena, biographer and postulator of the Cause for Canonization. There will also be moments of prayer for the sick, with Eucharistic adoration and catechesis held by religious congregations with charisms related to healthcare, from 16.00 to 17.00. In particular, the Church of Santa Maria del Suffragio will offer a moment of prayer entitled “In the footsteps of Blessed Luigi Novarese. Finding the blessing when life is marked by fragility”, and in the Church of Santa Maria Maddalena, the initiative “In the footsteps of San Camillo de Lellis. The heart unifies a fragmented life”:
Finally, the Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation will propose, in the Church of San Gregorio VII, from 17.00 to 18.30, a meeting entitled “Taking care and being cured: where does our hope reside?”, with interventions from Msgr. Andrea Manto (episcopal vicar for Health Pastoral Care of Rome), Sergio Daniotti (president of the Pharmaceutical Bank) and Giorgio Bordin (president of Medicine and the Person). Finally, in the Great Hall of the Pontifical Lateran University, a conference will be held, promoted by the National Office for Health Pastoral Care of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Higher School of Economics and Healthcare Systems Management (ALTEMS) of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, on the contribution of patient associations in the construction of a more humane, participatory and sustainable national healthcare system.
The Jubilee will conclude on Sunday 6 April, with Holy Mass in Saint Peter’s Square at 10.30, presided over by the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Fisichella, who will read the homily written by Pope Francis for the occasion. Participation in Holy Mass is free and open to all, and tickets are not required.
PRESS OFFICE – JUBILEE 2025
Dicastery for Evangelization
Section for Fundamental Questions regarding Evangelization in the world
press@iubilaeum2025.va
