“Mercy Opens Doors to Hope” | DIOCESE OF RIO BRANCO (Brazil)
In this column, throughout the year, the journey of the Jubilee as told by space + spadoni people from different parts of the world
Fr. Luigi Pieretti, fidei donum of the diocese of Lucca, has been in Brazil since 1979, and he tells us about the opening of the Jubilee year from Rio Branco, in the state of Acre.
A “pilgrim of hope” in the so-called “City of the People,” established to provide decent housing for families living in shacks along the Acre River, swept away by increasingly frequent floods.
On the evening of December 29, 2024, our Diocese of Rio Branco also began Jubilee 2025 with the motto “Pilgrims Hope.”
We gathered in the courtyard of St. Joseph’s College of the Sisters Servants of Mary Repairer.
Bishop Dom Joaquin Pertines, an Augustinian, welcomed all participants and began the procession to the Cathedral Church dedicated Mary Virgin of Nazareth.
Preceding the procession was a wooden cross used in the 2011 Diocesan Eucharistic Jubilee.
Once the procession was over, Holy Mass began.
In his homily, the Bishop explained the significance of the current Jubilee, dwelling on the meaning of the motto “Pilgrims of Hope”: the importance of having hope in a time when the events of our society put it in crisis.
The bishop, using the words of Pope Francis, invited us all to be Christians of hope and to witness to Christian hope, which finds its foundation in Jesus.
Every disciple of Christ must always look to Him to imitate His examples and witness with concrete gestures to love and solidarity through works of mercy directed to the people who most need precisely love and solidarity.
We hope that this Holy Year will make us all “Pilgrims of Hope.”
Source and Images
- spazio + spadoni
- Fr. Luigi Pieretti