Fr. Pierre Salabert, L.C
Rector
Dear friends,
“Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5, 5). With these words of the apostle, Pope Francis wanted to set the tone for the Holy Year 2025, the ‘Jubilee of Hope’.
The encounter with Christ and with his mercy gives the real meaning to the event of the opening of the Holy Door. As the Pope explains, with this act the Church invites us “to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ” (Spes non confundit, 6).
Every Christmas, salvation becomes close and visible in the Sacred Heart of the little Child of Bethlehem, from where his love for us springs forth. He is the origin of our faith, the source that keeps Christian convictions alive (cf. Dilexit nos, 32).
This Christmas, and in this Holy Year 2025, let us listen to the Pope’s exhortation that invites us to return to the heart. First, to our own heart, to hear its longings for plenitude and deep happiness. And then, from there, to turn to the Heart of our heart, which is Christ himself, in whom all our hope rests. Before the Heart of Christ, full of love in Bethlehem, “humanity, may regain the most important and necessary thing of all: its heart” (Dilexit nos, 31).
On behalf of the community of the Pontifical International College Maria Mater Ecclesiae, I wish all our relatives, alumni, friends and benefactors a holy and happy Christmas and Jubilee Year 2025, full of hope and abundant blessings. May Mary Most Holy, Mother of the Church, the people of hope, intercede for each one of you, and show you Jesus, who became a child in Bethlehem.
Fr. Pierre Salabert, L.C.
Rector