Rome 2025: The 13th Labor of Hercules

Source: FSSPX News

The Eternal City is embarking on a series of major works to accommodate the 32 to 40 million pilgrims expected during the Jubilee of 2025. But, a year and a half before the opening of the Holy Door, most of the sites are still at the bidding stage, and delays are piling up.

Everything seemed to have gotten off with a bang in January 2023, during the audience granted by the Sovereign Pontiff to the Mayor of Rome. Roberto Gualtieri presented to the Holy Father the 87 interventions planned in the Eternal City to achieve a metaphorical “embrace between Rome and the Vatican.”

The total amount for the interventions for the Jubilee - planned quarter by quarter - was nearly 4 billion euros, with a dual stated objective: to welcome the tens of millions of pilgrims who will go to the city of the Pope, and at the same time, make the city more “accessible, sustainable, and inclusive.”

More specifically, in order to facilitate access to religious sites and avoid traffic jams, it is planned, among other things, to convert the entire area from the Tiber to St. Peter's Basilica into a pedestrian zone; automobile traffic would be moved underground.

In addition, the San Pietro station, located near the Vatican, and its surroundings are to be redeveloped. A tram line is also planned between Termini Central Station and the Vatican. On paper, everything was perfect at the start of 2023.

Seven months later, optimism has given way to concern. In its July 29, 2023 edition, the Corriere della Sera reveals that most of the construction work on roads, squares, and communication routes for the Holy Year 2025 are way behind schedule.

Of the 184 construction works planned in total, only a few have started: “the data from our observatory show widespread and worrying delays.” warns Francesca De Sanctis, vice-president of the commission in charge of public works in the Italian capital.

And for good reason, most of the sites are still in the process of calls for proposals. However, several million pilgrims are expected in Rome on the occasion of the jubilee which should begin at the end of December 2024 with the opening of the Holy Door.

The major works are not making everyone happy, because Roman motorists will pay the price, and not just in fuel. The first closures and traffic diversions began in the streets of the city in the heart of summer, as tourists are flocking in. But, due to the Romans summer exodus, amplified by the heat wave which has been crushing the city this year, the real effect of the construction sites on the road network will be felt until next September.

“There will be some inconveniences but they aim to improve life in the capital,” Roberto Gualtieri has already warned. It remains for the Romans to meditate on the words that St. Paul addressed to them nearly 2,000 years ago: “We glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience trial; and trial hope” (Rom. 5:3-4).