The Vatican is lending its support to the Journey to Redemption 2033, a youth movement focused on spiritual renewal and culminating in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to commemorate the Redemption.<\/p>\n
The Vatican has endorsed the\u00a0Journey to Redemption 2033\u00a0project being promoted by the Spanish Bishops\u2019 Conference as well as other episcopal conferences around the world.<\/p>\n
The initiative began by encouraging young Christians from across Europe to open up a pathway to faith and hope for a new European generation in preparation for the Jubilee of Redemption, which will be celebrated in 2033.<\/p>\n
The first stage of the project began in 2025 in Rome with the Jubilee of Hope. The project\u2019s next destinations are Santiago de Compostela in 2027 and Jerusalem in 2033, coinciding with the 2,000th anniversary of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.<\/p>\n
Last week, the bishop of Palencia, Mikel Garciand\u00eda, held an intensive series of meetings at the Vatican with various dicasteries of the Roman Curia to advance the initiative worldwide.<\/p>\n
The bishop of Palencia, Mikel Garciand\u00eda, with Sister Raffaella Petrini, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State. | Credit: Vatican Media<\/p>\n
Garciand\u00eda\u2019s goal is ambitious: \u201cWe want it to be the project that has received the most support from young people in history,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
In an interview with ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, the bishop said that even at the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, he was told: \u201cThis has never been done before: to have a project that has to be simultaneously coordinated across five dicasteries and that is so transversal and so international.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project was officially launched on Aug. 1, 2025, with the proclamation of its manifestoduring a special event held at Santa Maria in Trastevere Church in Rome as part of the Jubilee of Young People.<\/p>\n
However, the decisive moment came on Jan. 21, after the pope\u2019s general audience. \u201cThe pope showed us the way and entrusted us with structuring this work with young people,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV was able to speak briefly with Journey to Redemption organizers Jan. 21, 2026, after his general audience. | Credit: Vatican Media<\/p>\n
Garciand\u00eda said the pontiff was already aware of the impact of the manifesto, which he had received in a private audience at the Apostolic Palace on Oct. 3, 2025: \u201cThis manifesto had received significant media attention in the first half of July, with practically a quarter of a million people and institutions adhering to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work of these past few days was structured around three main themes: family and life, youth and culture, and new evangelization, which are three of the elements of this project,\u201d said Garciand\u00eda, who was formerly rector of St. Michael of Aralar Shrine. <\/p>\n
This shrine dedicated to the Archangel Michael is part of a network from which the initiative originally arose and which was later adopted by the Spanish Bishops\u2019 Conference.<\/p>\n
The prelate emphasized that this is a process that has just entered a decisive phase: \u201cNow we are, so to speak, structuring the work for the next eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organizers want it to be the manifesto that receives the most support from young people in history. In this regard, Garciand\u00eda provided some revealing figures: \u201c236,000 young people signed the manifesto in less than two weeks in July.\u201d He added that \u201c100,000 young people from Canada who are going to hold a conference in 2027 have already requested that Journey to Redemption be included.\u201d<\/p>\n
The global dimension is one of the keys to the Journey to Redemption, as about 196 bishops\u2019 conferences throughout the world have been contacted about the effort.<\/p>\n
Bishop Garciand\u00eda with the pope on Jan. 21 Credit: Vatican Media<\/p>\n
The idea is to restore to the pilgrimage experience the spiritual content that, throughout the centuries, filled the soul, heart, and mind of those who traveled the roads to Santiago de Compostelo, Rome, and Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Garciand\u00eda noted that the pope himself identified with the youthful spirit of the project: \u201cAt the audience, the pope told us, \u2018I am young, and I want to sign the manifesto.\u2019 And he signed the manifesto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the journey\u2019s final stage is in Jerusalem to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, the bishop emphasized that \u201cthis project aims to have not an end in itself but a horizon of redemption.\u201d<\/p>\n
An unprecedented opportunity<\/p>\n
The Spanish bishop placed this project in the context of a profound cultural transformation among young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of them haven\u2019t even heard of Jesus,\u201d he said, highlighting an unprecedented opportunity: \u201cWe have a generation of young people who live on social media and who don\u2019t have any particular prejudices either for or against the Church.\u201d <\/p>\n
He noted that for the past 15 years, youth have been \u201chighly ideologized.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this context, he said the emergence of social media has been positive because \u201cit has caused the transmission of ideologies and philosophies, even atheism itself, to collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Church, he emphasized, this opens a new missionary horizon \u201cbecause we have young people who have nothing against us\u201d; hence, the value he attributes to pilgrimages and shrines, which he calls \u201copportunities where many people are going out into the streets and searching for something that they are thirsting for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acest articol a fost publicat ini\u021bial de ACI Prensa, serviciul de limb\u0103 spaniol\u0103 al EWTN News. Ea a fost tradus\u0103 \u0219i adaptat\u0103 de EWTN News English.<\/p>\n