Vatican City — Pope Leo on Saturday opened the Jubilees of Migrants and the Missionary World with a sweeping appeal for justice, solidarity, and a radical rethinking of how the world’s resources are shared, telling tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square that the Holy Year must mark a genuine turning point.
Addressing more than 40,000 pilgrims, the pontiff said the Jubilee’s spirit of renewal should inspire concrete action for a fairer society. “In order to start everything afresh, the Jubilee also opens up the hope of a different distribution of wealth, the possibility that the Earth belongs to everyone, because in reality this is not the case,” he said.
Framing the Holy Year as an examination of conscience, Pope Leo posed a stark choice to believers: “In this year we must choose whom to serve, justice or injustice, God or money. To hope is to choose. This means at least two things. The most obvious is that the world changes if we change.”
The jubilee observance, which highlights the Church’s missionary mandate alongside pastoral care for people on the move, drew migrant communities from across Italy. Among them was Regina Ubiaco, a Catholic originally from Nigeria, who said the day carried special meaning. “We are happy to be here to have this common sense of being together,” she said, describing the Pope as “one of our own.” She added: “Celebrating with him means a lot to us and that is why every migrant, we came from different parts of Italy to come and have this day with the Pope.”
On Sunday, the Pope returned to the theme of welcome, reminding Catholics of their duty to receive and assist migrants as a Gospel imperative. The back-to-back messages underscored the Church’s longstanding teaching on the dignity of persons fleeing conflict, poverty, or climate-driven hardship—and its call for receiving societies to respond with prudence, generosity, and respect for the common good.
The remarks come days after the US-born pontiff criticized President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, a stance that has put the Vatican at odds with Washington but in continuity with the Pope’s repeated insistence that border enforcement be balanced with humane treatment and due process for asylum seekers.
By linking the Jubilee to economic equity, Pope Leo broadened the conversation beyond emergency response to migration, urging faithful to see structural inequality as a moral question. Vatican officials said events tied to the Jubilee of Migrants will include catechesis, testimonies from migrant families, and charitable initiatives in Rome’s parishes aimed at practical support.
As pilgrims filtered out of the square, the Pope’s challenge lingered: that conversion in a Holy Year is measured not only by prayer and penance, but by a willingness to reorder personal and public priorities—placing the human person before profit and choosing, in his words, “justice over injustice.”
