During the Jubilee Year of Hope, St. Patrick’s will offer extended hours of opening, as well as welcome Pilgrim Groups who wish to celebrate the Eucharist or have Reconciliation Services. Our nearly completed Hospitality Room in the Vestibule and our Tara Hall facilities are also welcoming features. And see the list of Jubilee Walking Tours that will begin in February. More to come as the year progresses.
Our Jubilee Task Force made up of St. Patrick Parishioners are working diligently to make the Church of St. Patrick a place of Hospitality and Prayer for all English-speaking pilgrims. Please consider joining us for worship and prayer while you are in Rome during 2025.
Have you downloaded the Jubilee (Iubilaeum25) App yet? The app, which makes registration for Jubilee events easier, can be downloaded from the App Store for iOS and from the Play Store for Android. By using the app, which is available in six languages, you can access all the latest news on the Jubilee, register as a pilgrim for the Holy Year and obtain the Pilgrim Card for free. Once registered on the portal, you will also be able to register for Jubilee events and pilgrimages to each of the Holy Doors. By navigating the intuitive and simple menu, the user can ‘save’ events they are interested in, easily access their personalized area and get the unique QR code needed to pass through the Holy Door. We highly recommend downloading this App for yourself or family and friends who will be visiting during the Holy Year.
Two of our parishioners, Laura and Craig Schlattmann, who are also Jubilee Volunteers for
this year, were interviewed by the Catholic News Service which contributes to the USCCB website. Laura and Craig are very enthusiastic and devoted and we hope you’ll find their information about visiting the Holy Doors in Rome very helpful!!
Guiding souls: Jubilee volunteers lead pilgrims across Holy Door
by Justin McLellan
January 23, 2025
ROME (CNS) — Before the millions of pilgrims expected to come to Rome during the Holy Year 2025 cross through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, they will be met by smiling faces and lime green jackets.
Jubilee volunteers of all ages and nationalities have become a mainstay along the boulevard leading up to St. Peter’s Square since the start of the Holy Year.
Wearing uniforms emblazoned with “volontario” across their backs and the Jubilee and Vatican logos on their chests, the volunteers line the pilgrims’ path, offering guidance and companionship on their spiritual journey.
They escort pilgrims along the final leg of their pilgrimage to the Holy Door, checking passes, providing directions and accompanying groups in prayer.
For Craig and Laura Schlattmann — a married couple of Jubilee volunteers from Tacoma, Washington — participating in the current Holy Year has been 25 years in the making.
Craig was stationed in Italy for military service, and the couple lived in Rome during the Holy Year 2000. Back then they “vowed, God willing, to come back for the next ordinary Jubilee year in 2025,” Laura told Catholic News Service.
After Craig’s recent retirement, the couple decided to fulfill that promise. “We returned not just for ourselves and our own experience but also to help our family, friends and everyone who comes to Rome to experience this special year,” Craig said Jan. 23. “It’s been a real blessing.”
Though volunteer positions are open to all Catholics over 18 who can volunteer at least one week of their time at the Vatican, the Schlattmanns committed to moving to Rome for the duration of the Jubilee Year to host friends and family making pilgrimages to the Eternal City and assist other pilgrims.
Volunteers arrange their own travel to Rome, but once they arrive, the Dicastery for Evangelization provides meals and accommodations at the “Domus Spei,” a former convent in central Rome equipped with dozens of rooms and 100 beds. Applicants must submit a letter of introduction from their parish priest or another representative of a church organization.
The dicastery said it had received more than 7,000 volunteer applications before the start of the Jubilee.
In their day-to-day activities, the volunteers “are here to smooth the pilgrim’s path so that they can focus on their spiritual journey along the pilgrim way,” Laura told CNS.
Accompanying pilgrim groups is “a truly holy experience,” she said, particularly when guiding them toward the altar over St. Peter’s tomb.
“You can feel their love, you can feel their faith, and to realize that I am blessed enough to accompany them, it’s just amazing,” she said.
While participating as a pilgrim is powerful, Craig emphasized that volunteering offers a unique perspective. “To be a volunteer is to serve, and we’re serving our brothers and sisters in Christ, many of whom have come many, many miles at great expense to have a special, probably a once in a lifetime, experience.”
Although volunteers often accompany large groups of pilgrims through the Holy Door, the Schlattmanns said even smaller encounters with pilgrims leave a lasting impression.
Craig recalled witnessing a young priest and a layperson assist an elderly person to walk across the threshold of the Holy Door. “You could see their reverence and the excitement that they had,” he said, expressing gratitude for the blessing that is helping others reach the culmination of their long pilgrimage.
And obtaining that blessing beats out any other trip one could plan for 2025, Laura said.
“Put the ski vacation on hold for a year, put the cruise on hold for a year,” she said. “Come to Rome, do it for you, do it for your children, do it for your grandchildren, do it for your soul.”