In this Jubilee Year 2025, Pope Francis has called for us to become Pilgrims of Hope. He wrote:

In addition to finding hope in God’s grace, we are also called to discover hope in the signs of the times that the Lord gives us… We need to recognize the immense goodness present in our world, lest we be tempted to think ourselves overwhelmed by evil and violence. The signs of the times, which include the yearning of human hearts in need of God’s saving presence, ought to become signs of hope … The most convincing testimony to this hope is provided by the martyrs. Steadfast in their faith in the risen Christ, they renounced life itself here below, rather than betray their Lord. Martyrs, as confessors of the life that knows no end, are present and numerous in every age, and perhaps even more so in our own day. We need to treasure their testimony, in order to confirm our hope and allow it to bear good fruit. (Spes Non Confundit #7 and #20)

March 24 is the 45^th anniversary of the assassination in El Salvador of Saint Oscar Romero, whose life and witness consistently gave testimony to the possibility of hope in the context of a brutal civil war.  Romero believed that marginalized peoples were the place of God’s revelation in history – that they provided an opening where the God of hope and possibility could be discovered in the midst of violence and tremendous suffering. Archbishop Romero proclaimed the Word of God in such a way that it gave hope to impoverished people, announcing life and its fullness to the ones from whom he had drawn inspiration, and denouncing the poverty and repression that brought death to so many of his beloved people.^[1]

According to his friend, Jesuit martyr Ignacio Ellacuria, Archbishop Romero “based his hope on two pillars: a historic pillar, that was his knowledge of his people for whom he attributed an unquenchable capacity to find solutions to their most grave difficulties; and a transcendent pillar, that was his belief that ultimately God is a God of life and not death, that the last word of reality is good and not evil.”^[2]

In 1986, in the middle of the civil war in El Salvador, the organized return home of displaced civilian communities – back to their own land in zones of intense conflict – began to break the hold of the Salvadoran security forces on the countryside. Most visible were the repatriations of communities from the Mesa Grande and Colomoncagua refugee camps in Honduras. Each of these courageous nonviolent actions by Salvadoran “Pilgrims of Hope” shared some important characteristics. They were initiated by the people of El Salvador who were well organized; absolutely nonviolent, even in the midst of a vicious war; grounded in the faith of the Salvadoran people and a belief that their desire for an end to repression and for social justice in El Salvador was just; extremely courageous, given the possibility that any of the multiple “moves home” could have resulted in a massacre; well organized with every person, every family well prepared for the hardships and the dangers of the move; very public, making full use of the international media for protection; accompanied by international presence, using and strengthening an international solidarity network of individuals, faith communities and organizations; and effective, absolutely disrupting the military strategy of the Salvadoran government and their allies.

The 2025 Jubilee is an invitation to plant similar seeds of Gospel nonviolence throughout the Church, a call to the nonviolent work of identifying and organizing hope.

In announcing this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis said that

The first sign of hope should be the desire for peace in our world, which once more finds itself immersed in the tragedy of war. Heedless of the horrors of the past, humanity is confronting yet another ordeal, as many peoples are prey to brutality and violence. What does the future hold for those peoples, who have already endured so much? How is it possible that their desperate plea for help is not motivating world leaders to resolve the numerous regional conflicts in view of their possible consequences at the global level? Is it too much to dream that arms can fall silent and cease to rain down destruction and death? May the Jubilee remind us that those who are peacemakers will be called “children of God” (Mt 5:9).  (Bull #8)

At the very core of Jubilee is a call to stand resolutely against violence and every injustice and to build a world where the dignity and well-being of all, especially the most excluded and marginalized, are respected. Throughout his papacy, in word and witness, Pope Francis has played a critical role in advancing nonviolence – a spirituality, a way of life, a universal ethic, an effective approach to social transformation and, at the heart of the Gospel, an essential characteristic for Pilgrims of Hope.

Bishop Kevin Dowling, CSsR – Member of the Advisory Council of the Catholic Institute for Nonviolence and past co-president of Pax Christi International

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[1] See Oscar Romero: Reflections on His Life and Writings, by Marie Dennis, Renny Golden, Scott Wright, Orbis Books, 2000

[2] Carta a las Iglesias, No. 350.