(ANS – Rome) – The Jubilee of Youth 2025 is just around the corner: starting next Monday, July 28, for an entire week, hundreds of thousands of young people from across the globe will once again fill the streets of Rome with joy and vibrant witness — exactly 25 years after the unforgettable Jubilee of 2000. The event’s grand finale on Saturday, August 2, and Sunday, August 3, will recall that historical celebration, taking place once again on the vast esplanade of Tor Vergata.
Before those climactic days, however, participants will experience and share many other emotional moments, celebrations, and opportunities for reflection, friendship, faith, and inclusion. True to tradition, the young men and women of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) will be at the heart of this hopeful and inspirational gathering.
Numbers and Insights from the Event
At a press conference held this morning, Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in the Vatican, Archbishop Rino Fisichella — Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization and head of the Vatican’s Jubilee efforts — shared some key details about what is expected to be the most anticipated event of the Jubilee Year.
Young pilgrims will be arriving from 146 countries — 68% from Europe and the rest from other continents. Special mention was made of pilgrims from war-torn regions such as Lebanon, Iraq, Myanmar, Ukraine, Israel, Syriay South Sudan, creating a symbolic global embrace of youth from every background.
For hospitality, 270 parishes, 400 schools, and 40 additional facilities — including Civil Protection centers, sports halls, and private homes — have been prepared. 20 designated food points will distribute meals, with systems in place to ensure all registered participants are fed.
Archbishop Fisichella extended his gratitude to Italian civil authorities for their invaluable collaboration.
Salesian Hospitality
The Salesian community in Rome alone will host around 5,000 youth from the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM). This large-scale hospitality effort has been carefully organized by a coordination team from the Salesian Province of Central Italy.
In the eastern suburbs of Rome, 800 youth will stay in the gym and oratory of Don Bosco Parish. “We’ve also secured local schools and institutions, including those of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA), allowing us to accommodate 3,500 Salesian youth,” explained parish priest Fr. Giorgio Mocci. The Basilica of Don Bosco will serve as the central hub for logistics, with offices for registration, hospitality, and medical care.
Daily celebrations will be held in Italian, English, French, Spanish, and German, and priests will be available for confession at all times. The church, which seats up to 2,500 people, will remain open late into the night.
The highlight of the week for the Salesian Youth Movement, the eagerly awaited SYM Day (Salesian Youth Movement Day), will be celebrated on Wednesday, July 30 at the Don Bosco Basilica.
The Salesian Program: A Week of Spirituality, Culture, and Communion
Monday, July 28 will mark the beginning of the Jubilee experience for all pilgrims, and will also coincide with another significant initiative: the first-ever Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers — a clear sign that this unique form of evangelization is entrusted above all to young people, the natural inhabitants of today’s digital spaces.
For participants of the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM/MGS), arrivals and accommodations will take place between 9:00 AM and 9:00 PM. To welcome the young people there will be a colourful ‘SYM Fair’ in Piazza Don Bosco, a moment of celebration, meeting and sharing among delegations from all over the world, which will continue also in the following days of the event.
On Tuesday 29 July, at 6pm, the SYM will participate in the Holy Mass of Welcome of the Church of Rome in St Peter’s Square. This will be the first official common moment with all the young people of the Jubilee.
Wednesday 30 July will be the ‘SYM DAY’. From 10:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., the so-called ‘Dialogue with the City’ will be held in various urban areas: cultural, artistic and spiritual activities to encourage the meeting between young pilgrims and the living reality of Rome. At the same time the ‘SYM Jubilee Festival’ will also take place, which will see SYM youth from all over the world gathered around the Rector Major of the Salesians, Fr Fabio Attard, and the Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola. From 6pm onwards there will also be artistic performances from the various regions of the world, followed by fraternal agape, an evening show and a vigil with adoration.
On Thursday 31 July, the ‘Dialogue with the city’ will resume, with widespread proposals to continue living the dimension of encounter and witness. It will be an opportunity for groups to get to know significant places in Rome, Christian spirituality and the Salesian experience.
Friday 1 August will be Penitential Day: at the Circus Maximus, from 10.30 am to 6 pm, young people will be invited to live the experience of forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A powerful moment, personal and communitarian, of return to God and reconciliation with the Creator, with oneself and with others.
The climax of the event will be the weekend at Tor Vergata, the same place that hosted the final phase of World Youth Day in 2000 with St John Paul II. On Saturday 2 August, at 7 a.m., the SYM will receive the mandate from the Rector Major and the Mother General. Then, in pilgrimage, the young people will go to the esplanade designated for the meeting, and from 3pm to 8pm, they will take part in the planned animation activities, with music, testimonies and entertainment, while waiting for the Pope’s arrival. At 8:30, the vigil with the Holy Father will begin. Three young people — from Italy, Mexico, and the USA — will each ask the Pope a question in their native language, to which he will respond. Then an overnight stay in a sleeping bag under the stars will follow: an experience that will remain unforgettable for all the young people who will participate – just as it has been for the generations of young people who have had similar experiences at past WYDs.
Finally, on Sunday 3 August, at 9.30 a.m., again at Tor Vergata, the Holy Mass presided over by the Pope will be celebrated, the concluding act and spiritual culmination of the Youth Jubilee. A solemn but also festive moment, which will reinforce the experiences lived during the week in a community celebration of faith.
Pilgrim’s Handbook and Video-Animation
To support the participants, the organizing committee has prepared a comprehensive guidebook available in Italian, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Polish, accessible on the official Jubilee website:
https://www.iubilaeum2025.va
Finally, here is a short clip of preparation for the Youth Jubilee with the boys and girls of the MGS.