VATICAN - Missionaries of hope among the peoples: On October 4 and 5, the missionary world celebrates its Jubilee, with the international meeting at the Pontifical Urbaniana University

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On October 4th and 5th, Rome welcomes missionaries from all over the world who will gather in the Eternal City to celebrate their Jubilee. "Missionaries of hope among the peoples": this is how Pope Francis defined them in the theme he chose for this year's World Mission Sunday. This two-day event, long prepared in various dioceses around the world, is dedicated to them, to the missionaries, "people of spring, with a gaze always full of hope to share with all," as the prayer composed for their Jubilee says.
On the morning of Saturday, October 4, Pope Leo XIV will open the Jubilee with an audience scheduled for 10:00 a.m., which will be followed by a pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. In the afternoon, the Pontifical Urbaniana University, the historic "cradle" of the formation of missionary clergy and students from the new particular Churches, will host an International Missionary Meeting in its Aula Magna, scheduled from 5:00 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. (see attached poster).
The meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. with a welcome ceremony featuring songs and dances prepared by the sisters of the International Missionary College Mater Ecclesiae and the seminarians of the Urban College. "The Missio ad Gentes today. A Reflection" is the theme of the lecture by Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization - Section for First Evangelization and the New Particular Churches and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, who will officially open the meeting. Following Cardinal Tagle, Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, Consolata missionary and Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, will deliver a presentation entitled "Whispering the Gospel beyond all borders and barriers," which takes up the theme, dear to him, of proclaiming the Gospel as a "whisper" in the lands where he works. After a brief musical interlude, the audience in the Aula Magna of the Pontifical Urbaniana University will listen to the intense testimony of Sister Suzanne Djebba, Vicar General of the Missionaries of the Immaculate, PIME, on the theme "Joy and Hope in Mission among the Peoples. A Sharing."
Father Giulio Albanese, Comboni Missionary, journalist, Director of the Office for Social Communications and the Office for Missionary Cooperation of the Vicariate of Rome, will deliver the closing address on "The Challenges of Mission Today." Father Anh Nhue Nguyen OFMConv, Secretary General of the Pontifical Missionary Union, who will lead the meeting, will leave room, at the end of the interventions, for questions and a discussion with the Assembly.
The meeting can be followed online via the Zoom platform, which will also offer the possibility of simultaneous translation into English, French and Spanish. For the National Directions of the Pontifical Mission Societies that will participate in the Jubilee with numerous delegations on Saturday, October 4, after the conclusion of the international meeting, Masses/vigils of missionary prayer are planned between 7:15 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., divided by language groups and organized in several churches near St. Peter's Basilica. All missionary religious communities present in the various dioceses, communities and parishes around the world are invited to join spiritually in these prayer vigils for the missions, in communion with the groups present in Rome, in order to celebrate the Jubilee of the Missionary World at the global level.
The official program will continue on Saturday, October 4, at 9 p.m., with an International Missionary Rosary in St. Peter's Square. The following day, at 10:30 a.m., Holy Mass is scheduled, presided over by the Holy Father Leo XIV. On the afternoon of Sunday, October 5, between 2:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., the Peoples' Festival "Migrants and Missionaries of Hope among the Peoples," organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in synergy with the Dicastery for Evangelization, in the gardens of Castel Sant'Angelo, will close the Jubilee of the Missionary World. (EG) (Agenzia Fides, 29/9/2025)

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