Over the past year, me and several fellow Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma have had the privilege of working at the Bishops’ Office for United States Visitors to the Vatican here in Rome — during a Jubilee Year.
Our mission has been welcoming record numbers of pilgrims from all over the U.S to help them prepare for “a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ (cf. John 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere, and to all as ‘our hope’ (1 Timothy 1:1)” (Pope Francis, in “Spes Non Confundit,” (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”) bull announcing the 2025 Jubilee Year).
It has been a remarkable experience of God’s grace and mercy.
The visitors have come from all walks of life: first-time visitors to Rome, veteran pilgrims of past jubilees, young couples, babies in arms, elderly parents accompanied by their grown children, religious sisters, priests, and bishops.
But when they show up to our office, housed at the Casa Santa Maria (the residence for U.S. priests studying in Rome), a few steps from the Trevi Fountain, they all come with the same intention: to see the pope.
As they enter, they are greeted by smiling sisters and seminarians and directed to a table where they can collect their tickets. Then they are invited to stay for an orientation — a brief explanation of the Wednesday General Audiences, with some helpful tips to make their experience enjoyable and spiritually fruitful. Finally, they have an opportunity, if they desire, to prepare spiritually for the audience by receiving the sacrament of reconciliation.
The Visitors’ Office has been offering this service since the early 1970s, but this year has had some unique and unpredictable differences.
The holy Jubilee Year of Hope began on Christmas Eve, 2024, with the opening of the first Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica. Visitors came as usual in January and February to attend Pope Francis’ weekly audiences.
Then, as spring approached, Francis fell ill, and weekly activities at the Visitors’ Office took on a different flavor. Without papal events, there were no tickets to distribute. But our office continued to open its doors on Tuesday afternoons for a period of adoration and prayer for the Holy Father in the Casa Santa Maria’s chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Humility. It was a privilege to witness the faith of the handful of visitors each week who came to take time out of their pilgrimage schedule to pray and intercede for Francis.
In April, we distributed tickets to Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square, and we prepared pilgrims for the possible Urbi et Orbi blessing, not knowing whether Francis would be well enough to offer the blessing this year. We certainly never guessed that it would be the last day the world saw him.
When Wednesday audiences resumed May 21 following the election of Pope Leo XIV, the response was remarkable. We were used to welcoming about 900 people in peak seasons. But for Leo’s first audience, more than 1,800 came, and since then pilgrims have continued to come in larger numbers than ever. Leo has been giving his weekly catechesis in Italian, while also delivering his own summaries in Spanish and English.
At first, it was almost a surreal experience to hear the pope speaking English at an audience. An American-born pope has also been a gift for the newlywed couples who have been coming in the hundreds this year to attend the Wednesday audiences in their wedding garments, reminding us that the Church in America is replete with young adults generously seeking the Lord’s will for them in the sacrament of marriage.
The work of the Visitors’ Office may be similar from week to week, but it is never dull.
The greatest miracle we witness on a weekly basis is the quiet miracle of mercy that takes place in the confessional. Every Tuesday afternoon, several young American priests, living here at the Casa Santa Maria while pursuing studies in Rome, generously volunteer their time to hear the confessions of the pilgrims who desire to receive God’s healing mercy in this sacrament.
Many of the weeks this Jubilee Year, there have been five or six priests hearing confessions at a time for nearly three hours. Amid the bustle of the ticket distribution and orientations, we are continuously reminded each week of the miracles taking place in our very midst, as God’s mercy is freely dispensed to all who ask for it.
At the Visitors’ Office, through the generosity of Holy Cross Family Ministries and the Knights of Columbus, we have also been able to offer free rosaries and a series of catechetical booklets.
Every now and then, we hear from pilgrims about the ways they put these popular materials to use.
One week, a man came looking for “booklet number 7” in the catechetical series. He had heard from a friend that we offered the booklets, and he was eager for his own copy of that one. Others take booklets to share with family and friends, and to inform their own faith. We have also enjoyed meeting teachers, school chaplains, nurses, and others who have asked for rosaries to take back home, blessed by the pope at his audience, to give to those they serve.
We even had a very special visit from a boy in primary school who would not be in Rome long enough to attend an event with Leo, but who wanted to “take a blessing” back to his classmates at home. Before he came to Rome, we were able to take rosaries to an audience to have them blessed by Leo, and this young boy was thrilled when he came to collect the rosaries to take them back for his schoolmates. We later heard that his school was blown away to receive such a gift.
Thankfully, opportunities to pray and celebrate our hope in Christ Jesus have not been limited to those Wednesday audiences and weekly encounters at the Visitors’ Office.
Especially since the election of Leo in May, there have been Saturday Jubilee audiences with the pope and an extraordinary number of papal Masses. And as pilgrims from around the world have made their way toward the four major basilicas in Rome, we have regularly witnessed large groups praying and singing, often carrying a Jubilee cross.
For us, their faith and enthusiasm is a sure sign that faith in Jesus Christ, our hope, is alive and well throughout the world.
