St Peter's Basilica is preparing for the Jubilee with the launch of two new social promotion projects. The initiatives, aimed at refugees and prisoners, are the 'Rosaries of the Sea', in collaboration with the Fondazione Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti, and a programme for the re-employment of prisoners, in collaboration with the Associazione Seconda Chance.
The 'Rosaries of the Sea' project, launched in September 2023, employs refugees in the production of rosaries to be purchased by pilgrims coming to St. Peter's Basilica. The 'Seconda Chance' project promotes the reintegration of prisoners into society through work. Thanks to the collaboration with the Associazione Seconda Chance, an inmate from Rebibbia Nuovo Complesso has already been employed for several months as an electrician in the ordinary maintenance activities of the Basilica, coordinated by the Fabbrica di San Pietro. After recent interviews in the Roman prisons of Rebibbia and Regina Coeli, other figures are being selected.
"In the jubilee, disgraced Jews, who had become 'slaves' to their brothers to repay debts, were freed and properties that had been sold due to financial difficulties were returned to the original owners. Moreover, in that year - as every seven years - the land was not cultivated, to allow it to regenerate,' said H.Em. Card. Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of St. Peter's Papal Basilica, "The Jubilee can only be lived by continually drawing on the spiritual life, which allows one to have a simple and humble gaze and a wide heart to welcome others, those who are different, because it recognises them as so similar to itself in the mysterious depths of its being that it feels one with them".
