ROME – By decree of Pope Francis, 2025 is a Jubilee year, a time for forgiveness and reconciliation. U.S. Military Catholics will celebrate the occasion this week with an extraordinary pilgrimage to the Eternal City. At the peaks of their spiritual journey, Sunday Mass with the Holy Father and the opportunity to pass through the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica will beckon pilgrims. The five-day pilgrimage overlaps the Holy See’s Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Security Personnel for Catholic first-responders worldwide, set in Rome this weekend.
His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services, USA (AMS), will lead 17 U.S. Military Catholics and family members on the Feb. 6-10 pilgrimage. The group includes faithful from Fort Wainwright, AK; Joint-Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ; Beale and Travis Air Force Bases, CA; Offutt AFB, NE; and Yokota Air Base, Japan. The Holy See has invited one among the group to serve as lector for the Papal Mass on Feb. 9. More Catholics from U.S. Military installations across Europe will make their own way to the City of Seven Hills for the Feb. 8-9 international Jubilee.
Upon arrival in Rome on Thursday, the AMS pilgrims will take part in a 5:00 p.m. Mass celebrated by Archbishop Broglio at the Basilica of St. Mary Major. Other visitations along the multi-day, devotional route include calls to the tombs of Saints Lawrence, Stephen, and Justin Martyr at the Basilica of St. Lawrence; the Scala Sancta (Holy Stairs) near the Basilica of St. John Lateran; the St. Sebastian Catacombs; Mass at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Peter’s Basilica; and veneration of the Passion Relics at the Basilica of the Holy Cross.
Archbishop Broglio commented: “Responding to the Holy Father’s invitation to celebrate this ordinary Jubilee of Hope is a privilege. I look forward to introducing our pilgrims to the Eternal City where I spent 19 years of my life. It should be an immensely spiritual visit.”
During the international jubilee on Saturday, following a welcome ceremony with brass band concert in the Piazza del Popolo, the AMS delegation will attend a reception hosted by the Honorable Laura Hochla, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. The AMS pilgrimage winds down on Monday with a visit to the World War Two Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, burial place of 7,845 American heroes, including three chaplains—most notably, Father Martin J. O’Gara, S.J. (1907-1946), a U.S. Army chaplain who gave his life to save fellow soldiers in a fiery plane crash on the Mediterranean.