Construction continues in Rome for the Catholic Holy Year 2025, which has already been underway for months. An open-air arena has now been built for the Roman ‘World Youth Day’. The costs for Italy’s government are considerable.
The Holy Year 2025 in Rome is not only a major religious event, but also an opportunity to beautify the city. There are new squares, paths and tunnels around the Vatican, and now a sports centre on the outskirts of the city that has been abandoned for years has been renovated – at a cost of almost 80 million euros. The money comes mainly from the Italian government. The open-air arena in Tor Vergata was handed over to the city on Monday evening shortly before the start of the jubilee event for young people from July 28 to August 3.
An evening prayer and a Sunday mass with the Pope are to take place there on the occasion of the Roman ‘World Youth Day’. During the night between the two events, the young people will have the opportunity to sleep in sleeping bags on the grounds. Hundreds of thousands of young people, mainly from Europe, are expected to attend the major event. In the Holy Year 2000, Pope John Paul II also celebrated an evening prayer in Tor Vergata with around two million people, which made headlines at the time as the largest mass in the history of Rome.
The arena in the south-east of Italy’s capital has a capacity of 8,000 seated and up to 15,000 standing. It is part of a sports city that was to be built for the swimming world championships in 2009, was never completed and then fell into disrepair. Now the wound of this unfinished building has been closed, said Rome’s mayor Roberto Gualtieri at the handover of the arena with its characteristic 75 metre high sail weighing more than 6,800 tonnes.
In addition to the church services in Tor Vergata, the programme for the Catholic youth event includes a welcoming mass in St Peter’s Square, a day of confession in the Circus Maximus and cultural, artistic and spiritual activities throughout the city. Many parishes in the region are providing overnight accommodation for young people.
