Incense is dispensed at St. Peter’s Basilica during the Easter Vigil, Saturday, April 19, 2025 / Credit: Zosia Czubak
Vatican City, Apr 19, 2025 / 20:25 pm (CNA).
Catholics celebrated Easter Vigil in the Holy Night at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Saturday, marking what Pope Francis in his homily said was the moment when “the divine light of the Resurrection begins to shine” and “the Lord’s Passover from death to life takes place as the sun is about to rise.”
Still recovering from his bout with pneumonia, the Holy Father delegated the liturgy to be celebrated by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, who read the pope’s homily during the Mass.
Hundreds of clergy were in attendance, including nearly three dozen cardinals.
Clergy are assembled for the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, April 19, 2025. Credit: Zosia Czubak
A priest distributes Holy Communion during the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, April 19, 2025. Credit: Zosia Czubak
A crucifix is held aloft during the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, April 19, 2025. Credit: Zosia Czubak
A member of the Swiss Guard is seen during the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, April 19, 2025. Credit: Zosia Czubak
The Paschal Candle is seen during the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, April 19, 2025. Credit: Zosia Czubak
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re presides over the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Saturday, April 19, 2025. Credit: Zosia Czubak
Three catechumens are seen during the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, April 19, 2025. Credit: Zosia Czubak
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Pope Leo XIV appealed for help for Sudan during his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 3, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media.
Vatican City, Sep 3, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday pleaded for international assistance for the North African country of Sudan, which is experiencing violence, famine, natural disasters, and disease.
“I am closer than ever to the Sudanese population, in particular families, children and the displaced,” Leo said at the end of his general audience at the Vatican Sept. 3.
“I pray for all the victims,” the pontiff added. “I make a heartfelt appeal to leaders and to the international community to guarantee humanitarian corridors and implement a coordinated response to stop this humanitarian catastrophe.”
The dramatic situation in Sudan, marked by months of armed clashes, mass displacement, and the threat of cholera, has prompted multiple warnings from humanitarian organizations.
In his appeal, Leo drew attention to the civilians trapped in the city of El Fasher, where they are experiencing famine and violence, and to a deadly landslide in Tarsin, which it is believed killed up to 1,000 people, with others still missing.
“And, as if that were not enough,” the pontiff added, “the spread of cholera is threatening hundreds of thousands of already stricken people.”
“It is time to initiate a serious, sincere and inclusive dialogue between the parties to end the conflict and restore hope, dignity and peace to the people of Sudan,” Leo urged.
Pope Leo XIV rides in the popemobile before his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 3, 2025. Credit: Vatican Media.
After three weeks indoors, the pope’s public audience returned to St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday following a dip in Rome’s soaring August temperatures.
‘No-one can save themselves’
In his spiritual message at the audience, Leo reflected on Jesus’ final moments on the cross as narrated in the Gospel of John, where the crucified Christ utters the phrase: “I thirst.”
The pope said the thirst of the Crucified One is not only the physiological need of a tortured body, but above all, the expression of a profound desire for love, relationship, and communion.
His cry, Leo XIV asserted, is that of a God “who is not ashamed to beg for a sip, because in that gesture he tells us that love, in order to be true, must also learn to ask and not only to give.”
The pontiff then stated that “Jesus does not save with a dramatic twist, but by asking for something that he cannot give himself.”
This, according to the Holy Father, opens a door to true hope: “If even the Son of God chose not to be self-sufficient, then our thirst too — for love, for meaning, for justice — is a sign not of failure, but of truth.”
“Jesus’ thirst on the cross is therefore ours too,” he added. “It is the cry of a wounded humanity that seeks living water. And this thirst does not lead us away from God, but rather unites us with him. If we have the courage to acknowledge it, we can discover that even our fragility is a bridge towards heaven.”
Thus, the pope said, on the cross, Jesus teaches us that human beings are not realized “in power, but in trustful openness to others, even when they are hostile and enemies.”
It is precisely through the acceptance of fragility that we achieve salvation, he emphasized, which “is not found in autonomy, but in humbly recognizing one’s own need and in being able to express it freely.”
“None of us can be self-sufficient. No-one can save themselves. Life is ‘fulfilled’ not when we are strong, but when we learn how to receive,” Leo said.
A difficult truth
“We live in a time that rewards self-sufficiency, efficiency, performance,” he said. “And yet the Gospel shows us that the measure of our humanity is not given by what we can achieve, but by our ability to let ourselves be loved and, when necessary, even helped.”
Leo XIV invited the faithful to rediscover the simple joy that is born of fraternity and free gift of self. He emphasized that in everyday gestures, such as “asking without shame” and “offering without ulterior motives,” lies a profound happiness, distinct from that which the world proposes.
“It is a joy that restores us to the original truth of our being: we are creatures made to give and receive love,” the pontiff affirmed.
He encouraged those listening to not be afraid or ashamed to reach out, even when they feel undeserving. “It is right there, in that humble gesture, that salvation hides,” he concluded.
The logo of the 2025 Jubilee. The Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization is organizing the Catholic Church’s next Holy Year around the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.” / Daniel Ibanez/CNA
Vatican City, Sep 17, 2022 / 05:12 am (CNA).
The Vatican will hold a contest to choose the original musical composition for the official hymn of the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year.
The Dicastery for Evangelization announced the sacred music writing competition Sept. 17. The contest will open for submissions early next year.
Entries, the dicastery said, should set to music a text in Italian by the theologian Monsignor Pierangelo Sequeri. After the winning music is chosen next year, the evangelization office will translate the text into other major languages.
The text is titled “Pilgrims of Hope,” after the theme of the 2025 Jubilee. The refrain, translated into English by CNA, is: “Living flame of my hope, May this song reach up to Thee! Eternal womb of infinite life, On my way I trust in Thee.”
According to the regulations set out by the Vatican, the musical composition should include a score for voice and organ, and be able to be sung both by church congregations and by four-part church choirs.
The competition will be open for submissions from Jan. 16 to March 25, 2023, and the winner will be chosen by a judging committee in collaboration with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music. Full regulations can be found on the webpage of the 2025 Jubilee.
The logo for the 2025 Jubilee Year was also chosen after a worldwide competition, and unveiled in June.
A Jubilee is a special Holy Year of grace and pilgrimage in the Catholic Church. An ordinary Jubilee typically takes place every 25 years, though a pope may call for additional Jubilees, as Pope Francis did with the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy from 2015-2016.
The last ordinary Jubilee was the Great Jubilee of 2000, which was held under Saint Pope John Paul II and had the theme “Christ Yesterday, Today, Forever.”
In its announcement of the hymn-writing competition Saturday, the Dicastery for Evangelization said that “the Sacred Scriptures are steeped in song, and the Psalms are a striking example: the prayers of the people of Israel were written to be sung, and it was in song that the most human events were presented before the Lord.”
“The tradition of the Church has continued this, making music and song one of the lungs of its liturgy,” the dicastery said.
The evangelization office, which is responsible for organizing the Jubilee, said “many themes of the Holy Year are woven into the text” of the hymn prepared by Monsignor Pierangelo Sequeri, who is the former dean of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family in Rome.
“The motto, ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’” it said, “is best echoed biblically in some pages from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 9 and Isaiah 60). The themes of creation, fraternity, God’s tenderness and hope in our destination resonate in a language, which although not ‘technically’ theological, is in substance and in the allusions, so that it rings eloquently in the ears of our time.”
The full lyrics of what will become the official hymn of the 2025 Jubilee can be found below. It has been translated into English from the Italian original by CNA.
Pilgrims of Hope
Living flame of my hope may this song reach up to Thee! Eternal womb of infinite life on the way I trust in Thee.
Every tongue, people and nation finds light in your Word. Sons and daughters scattered and fragile are embraced in your beloved Son.
Living flame of my hope may this song reach up to Thee! Eternal womb of infinite life on the way I trust in Thee.
God watches us, tender and patient: the dawn of a new future rises. New Heavens Earth made new: the Spirit of Life moves walls.
Living flame of my hope may this song reach up to Thee! Eternal womb of infinite life on the way I trust in Thee.
Lift up your eyes, move with the wind, speed up your step: God comes, in time. See the Son who became Man: thousands upon thousands find the way.
Living flame of my hope may this song reach up to Thee! Eternal womb of infinite life on the way I trust in Thee.
It’s Good News. He is Risen. “The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again”.