Inauguration of the new Piazza Pia with Prime Minister Meloni and Cardinal Parolin
On the morning pf December 23, at 11am, the inauguration of the new Piazza Pia took place. It represents the most important redevelopment project to be completed ahead of the Jubilee of Hope, which opened on December 24. The piazza, which will be able to accommodate over 150,000 pilgrims, has been entirely pedestrianized thanks to the construction of a new ultra-modern underpass. The ceremony was attended by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, the Secretary of State of the Holy See, His Eminence Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the Pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, in charge of organizing the Jubilee, His Excellency Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, and the President of the Lazio Region, Francesco Rocca.
The piazza, which only a year ago saw more than 3,000 vehicles pass through it every hour, is now a pedestrian area where visitors can stop and enjoy the fountains and tree-lined areas. "Few believed we could do it, but we did it," said Mayor Gualtieri, who is also the Government Commissioner for the Holy Year. He added: "The Jubilee has given Rome a beautiful new square. To achieve this goal, we had a real race against time, which required maximum commitment and an exceptional degree of collaboration which allowed us to overcome difficulties and unforeseen circumstances." The mayor thanked the company charged with the works, Anas, and all those who worked on the construction site. In all, about 110 workers were involved, divided into three shifts, working 24 hours a day for 450 days of work in total. "It was a powerful collective effort," added Gualtieri, "and I really want to express my gratitude on behalf of Rome to all those who contributed to achieving this extraordinary result, including Archbishop Fisichella who was the first to believe in this project. My hope is that this experience of effective collaboration will leave Rome and Italy with a model based on practicality and efficiency. With this ‘piazza of welcome’, this tangible sign of hope, we are readying Rome for the beginning of the Jubilee”.
On behalf of the Holy See, Cardinal Parolin said: “This is a very significant moment. In some ways, one could say that a work begun a long time ago has been completed. I remember when Pius XII, for the Jubilee of 1950, completed the construction of Via della Conciliazione. Today, the realization of this new square allows us to link up two important sites of the eternal city. The ancient Roman antiquity of Castel Sant’Angelo leads, with the development of history towards the work of Michelangelo and Bernini. The ancient and the modern are not opposed to each other but allow for a continuity that only the hand of the artist can achieve with coherence, thus opening unexpected horizons for all of us. A work of great engineering has been completed that will allow the people of Rome and pilgrims who will come for the Jubilee to admire this part of the city in a new and better way.”
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, said: “From tomorrow night, Rome will open its doors even more to the millions of pilgrims who will come to St. Peter's and the other Jubilee basilicas. In these two years we have all worked well together to ensure that the city was up to the task and the expectations people had of it. This work that we are now inaugurating is the most impressive, an investment of over 85 million euros that allows us to achieve two objectives: making traffic faster and giving the city a new, large and safe pedestrian space. There are also several important works that will soon be inaugurated. Behind the scenes we also have the strengthening of essential services, starting with the Accident and Emergency Department of the Santo Spirito in Sassia Hospital. This transformation of Piazza Pia can be defined as a real little civil miracle, one of those works that we are capable of when we put our minds to it. I think we can call this the ‘Jubilee method’, to remind us that in Italy things can be done and done well”.
She added: “The Holy Year is first of all an event of faith, which allows us to focus on ourselves and our lives. When you ask those who have had the experience of a pilgrimage to describe it, you often hear them say that the journey represented a turning point. I hope that as a national community we can make the same journey, putting in our backpack only that which is truly useful, so as to move faster and to be able to see what is truly essential”.