“The Jubilee is culture” – launch of program of cultural events for 2024 in preparation for the Holy Year
The Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella said the Pope's invitation to mark the Jubilee as "a significant moment for pastoral care in local Churches", encouraged the Dicastery to make an effort to "give a cultural dimension to the Jubilee experience.” And so, the journey towards the Holy Year of 2025 will also be a pilgrimage of beauty.
This morning, in the Press Room of the Holy See, the main cultural events planned for 2024 in the "Jubilee is culture" program, which is being organized by the first section of the Dicastery for Evangelization, were presented at a press conference. In addition to the Pro-Prefect, Don Alessio Geretti, Curator of Exhibitions and Monsignor Dario Viganò, cinema expert and Vice Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences, also spoke.
The first event scheduled is the Pre-Jubilee film festival entitled “Faces and Counterfaces of Hope”. It will run at the Cinema delle Province, from April 14th- 21st, with twelve scheduled screenings.
The opening film will be “The Gates of Heaven”, by Vittorio De Sica and Cesare Zavattini (1945), in a recently remastered version. This will be followed by other films mostly from the current film season and selected by the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo: “One life” (2023) by James Hawes, “La chimera” (2023) by Alice Rohrwacher, “Perfect Days” ( 2023) by Wim Wenders, “Fallen Leaves” (2023) by Aki Kaurismäki. Also showing will be films released in recent years: “L'intrepido” (2013) by Gianni Amelio, “Silence” (2016) by Martin Scorsese, “Chiara” (2002) by Susanna Nicchiarelli and “Le concert” (2009) by Radu Mihăileanu.
The exhibition will close with the film “The Forbidden Christ” (1951) by Curzio Malaparte.
The musical section of the program is entitled “Harmonies of Hope.” After the great success of the first concert, which took place last November 26, and saw the “Virtuosi di Kiev” Orchestra perform Dvorak's classic symphony, “From the New World” at the Conciliazione Auditorium, it will continue on Sunday 28 April 2024, with the Messiah by G.F. Handel. The Florentine Ensemble of the "Musici del Gran Principe", directed by the young Maestro Samuele Lastrucci, will perform the entire work from 5.30 pm at the Church of Sant'Ignazio in central Rome.
A second scheduled highlight will take place on November 3, 2024, at 6 pm at the Auditorium in Via della Conciliazione, and will feature the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia who will perform Dimitri Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, directed by Maestro Jader Bignamini, currently Musical Director at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The third big event will be held just before the opening of the Holy Door. At 6.00 pm on 22 December 2024, at the Church of Sant'Ignazio, the Pontifical Sistine Choir will perform various polyphonic compositions by Palestrina, Perosi and Bartolucci.
The visual art program which has the title "The Heavens Opened" and which launched in September 2023 with the El Greco exhibition in Sant'Agnese in Agone, will continue in 2024 with an exhibition of works by Salvador Dalì, which will be held over the summer in a historic church in the center of Rome. Later in the year there will be an exhibition dedicated to the art of Marc Chagall.
Archbishop Fisichella said: "The motto ’Pilgrims of hope’ intentionally possesses universal characteristics. Everyone hopes, without exception. The experience of hope is rooted in the heart of every person as an expectation of a good and a desire for it to come true.”
He added: “Hope is the object of study by various sciences: from literature to psychiatry; from sociology to philosophy and theology ... the need to give voice to hope unites knowledge and makes humanity more involved in a process of progress and well-being".
The posters for the Film Festival and Handel's Messiah can be downloaded from this page. All events are free and open to the public until all places are taken. No tickets will e needed to participate.