This summer, Campus Ministry Director Rev. John Savard, S.J., and Campus Minister for Community Engagement Katie Byrnes, EdD ’25, led ten Fairfield students to join 1.5 million young attendees in Rome for the 2025 Jubilee of Young People.
Hosted by Pope Leo XIV, this event is one of several international gatherings called by Pope Francis during the Jubilee Year.
The Jubilee Year is celebrated every 25 years and is a profound expression of pilgrimage, renewal, and harmony. Pilgrims pass through the four Holy Doors of Rome and venerate the relics of the apostles in the great basilicas. The 2025 Holy Year theme, Pilgrims of Hope, invites participants to recover a spirit of universality and to raise awareness of supporting vulnerable communities. As His Holiness Pope Francis expressed last year in his Bull of Indiction for the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025, Spes Non Confundit, "Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it."
During a prayer service coordinated by the U.S. Bishops, Fairfield students processed with relics from young saints including soon-to-be-named-saint Blessed Pier George Frassati, St. Kateri Tekakwitha, and Blessed Michael McGivney. During the Jubilee Mass at Tor Vergata, Pope Leo XIV posed questions that continue to resonate deeply with the group. “There is a burning question in our hearts, a need for truth that we cannot ignore,” he said, “which leads us to ask: What is true happiness? What is the true meaning of life? What can free us from meaninglessness, boredom, and mediocrity?”
