Pope Francis to lay Catholics: “Be Pilgrims of Hope to build the Italy of tomorrow”

The Italian Catholic laity is being entrusted with the "task of organizing hope", especially in the run-up to the 2025 Jubilee. With these words, on Sunday 7 July, Pope Francis addressed around a thousand delegates gathered in Trieste for the 50th edition of the Social Week of Catholics in Italy. The Holy Father encouraged committed lay people, following the example of the Venerable Giorgio La Pira, to build “a system of ‘bridges’ between the cities of the world to create opportunities for unity and dialogue”, especially in a time like ours which is marked by violence and war.

“This is your task,” the Pope underlined, “to organize things. Also organize efforts at peace and good political projects that emerge from the grassroots. Why not relaunch, support, and multiply efforts for social and political education that start with young people? Why not share the richness of the social teaching of the Church? We can provide places for discussion and dialogue and promote synergies for the common good." He asked the lay people, who were and are, together with the hierarchy, protagonists of the synodal path, to continue actively engaging in "community discernment" with "the horizon of the Jubilee" before them, becoming "pilgrims of hope for the Italy of tomorrow”.

The Holy Father then asked the lay people to have "the courage to start processes, always", because the role of the Church is to get people "involved in hope".

“Without it we manage the present, but we cannot build the future. Without hope, we would be administrators, tightrope walkers of the present and not prophets and builders of the future."