At 12 noon, in the Holy See Press Office, Via della Conciliazione 54, a press conference was held to present the “Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture”, to be held from 15 to 18 February.

The speakers were: His Eminence Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education; Senator Lucia Borgonzoni, under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Culture; Pres. Lina Di Domenico, acting head of department of the Department of Prison Administration of the Ministry of Justice of the Italian Republic; Dr. Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums; Dr. Cristiana Perrella, curator of the “Conciliazione 5” Space for the Holy Year 2025; and Dr. Raffaella Perna, curator of the exhibition “Global Visual Poetry: transnational trajectories in Visual Poetry”.

Intervention of His Eminence Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça

Good morning, everyone. I thank the Press Office for organizing this meeting. I greet those who share with me this round table and who, in the name of hope, bear witness to a remarkable spirit of collaboration between institutions. And I greet the journalists and communication professionals who are following us, in person and via livestreaming. We cannot emphasize too much how grateful we are for your valuable work, which contributes a great deal to the construction of a cohesive community of informed citizens.

The wish formulated by Pope Francis at the beginning of the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee decisively inspires this Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture, which we will celebrate in the city of Rome between 15 and 18 February. The Holy Father writes: “For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope”. This key phrase underpins the various initiatives we will promote. On the one hand, it strengthens the awareness that hope is a global anthropological experience, that pulsates in the heart of every culture, and which gives all of them the possibility of dialogue starting from hope. Indeed, we must listen to what the different cultures have to say on hope. And, on the other hand, it places before us a concrete challenge, thrown down as a matter of urgency, to give life to creative opportunities that permit each and every one of us to revive hope.

What is the aim of the initiatives of this Jubilee? To bring about dialogue on hope. To place it at the centre of the public space as a priority cultural theme. To intercept hope as a necessary and powerful resource, a collective resource in which we must increasingly invest. To declare together that hope is a commodity of primary need, not simply an accessory. To ask ourselves how the cultural heritage of religions can be a more active transmitter of hope among the new generations. To question ourselves on how contemporary art can convey hope, going to sensitive human places. To seek together spiritual and artistic expressions that can constitute grammars and poetics of hope for the contemporary world.

One of the strongest aspects of this Jubilee of Artists and the World of Culture is that it takes the form of a great and truly global meeting, since it brings together more than ten thousand registered participants from over 100 nations on five continents.

We will now gather the contributions from the members of this table on the various initiatives, following the programme scheduled for each day. On Saturday 15, we will begin with participation in the General Audience of the Holy Father. We will then have a rich programme. With the collaboration of the Vatican Museums, we will organize a meeting with the heads of major museums and cultural institutions of reference to think about forms of common commitment that can promote the cultural code of religions, without which culture would be irremediably impoverished. At the end of the afternoon, we will inaugurate a new exhibition space, a street gallery or Window Gallery, destined to remain after the Jubilee: it is located in Via della Conciliazione, and will be called Conciliazione 5. The inaugural exhibition is a project by the Maestro Yan Pei-Ming; it is curated by Cristiana Parrella, and puts the community of Regina Caeli Prison at everyone’s emotional and visual centre of attention. This initiative was realized in collaboration with the Department of the Italian Prison Administration.

On Sunday 16, the initiatives are concentrated at Saint Peter’s. Here we will have the celebration at 10.00, to which the protagonists of culture and those who, in various capacities, work in the world of the arts are invited. In the evening, we will have the opportunity to perform together the most emblematic gesture of the Jubilee, the passing of the Holy Door, and to follow a spiritual and cultural itinerary in the Basilica. This initiative, which we call “White Night at Saint Peter's”, naturally benefits from the collaboration of the Fabric of Saint Peter and Umberto Vattani.

A highly anticipated moment is the first visit of a pontiff to Cinecittà. On Monday 17 February, Pope Francis will visit the studios in Rome, where he will meet a representation of artists and protagonists of the world of culture, of the Cinecittà workers, and will be welcomed by a special choir: La Nave, made up of over fifty people, which unites inmates, ex-convicts and volunteers in an experience of social re-inclusion through music. The Cinecittà initiative will be realized in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Culture and Cinecittà.

Again on Monday, but in the afternoon, the Dicastery for Culture and Education will promote a meeting of representatives of Catholic cultural centres and ecclesial bodies dedicated to culture.

On Tuesday 18, liturgical memorial of Beato Angelico, Patron of the Arts, we will inaugurate in the spaces of the Dicastery a major exhibition on “transnational trajectories in Visual Poetry”, curated by Raffaella Perna, which is linked to this common search for poetics capable of redescribing hope today. And re-telling hope is everyone's task.