Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting New Evangelisation, presented Monday the statistics of the
Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that just ended, during the presentation
of the Holy Father’s Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera.
In total, "900 to 950 million people from around the world passed
through the Holy Door".
In Rome, that number includes 21,292,926 people
from 156 countries, helped by 4,000 volunteers from 36 different
countries.
When he announced the Jubilee, “Pope Francis’s desire was
specifically this: to make believers experience mercy so that it could
become a tool of mercy,” Mgr Fisichella said. This meant “making mercy
again something extraordinarily propulsive and effective in the life of
the Church.”
"One thing is certain with this Jubilee, namely that mercy has become
the protagonist, at least for a year, of the daily life of Christians.
Entrusting the realisation of the Jubilee to the Pontifical Council for
Promoting the New Evangelisation was also designed to make this theme,
which is the essence of the Gospel, the way of today’s evangelisation so
as to strengthen the faith, shake indifference, and provoke people to
[adopt] a coherent way of life."
Turning to the numbers, Mgr Fisichella said that 21,292,926 pilgrims
visited Rome. "The most numerous group consisted of Italians, followed
by German speakers, then the United States of America, Poland, and
Spain, but also Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Venezuela, Chad,
Rwanda, Angola, the Cook Islands, Nepal. . . In short, we can say that
the whole world came to Rome. We can really say that the world visited
us and that Rome was truly at the centre of interest of these pilgrims."
"As you know, for the first time in the history of the Jubilee, this
Holy Year had a universal character. Around the world we opened the
Doors of Mercy as a testimony that God’s love does not know any
boundary. We had the data in our possession studied as far as possible.
This resulted in an extremely interesting analysis.
“In countries where Catholicism is more deeply rooted, the percentage
of faithful who crossed the Holy Door topped 80 per cent of all
Catholics. This result was reached thanks to the dioceses. About 50 per
cent of the world’s approximately 3,000 dioceses are in fact in Europe
and in Central-South America. The growing number of dioceses in Africa
and, to some extent, in Asia, also allowed us to reach millions of
people in the rest of the world.
“Globally, thanks to data provided by some of the world’s largest
dioceses, it was possible to estimate an average attendance of 56 to 62
per cent of the total Catholic population. This represents 700 to 850
million Catholics who crossed the Holy Door between 8 December 2015 and
November 2016, in the [various] dioceses. To these must be added the
faithful who crossed the Doors of Mercy opened in shrines and places of
pilgrimage around the world.
“In fact, the biggest shrines saw an average attendance of 3 million
people. For example, 5 million Catholics visited the shrine of Krakow.
That of Santiago de Compostela beat the 2010 attendance record; the
sanctuary of Guadalupe was visited by about 22 million pilgrims. Adding
everything up, we get an overall result of 900 to 950 million of
Catholics around the world passing through the Holy Door."
"Finally, lest we forget, this Jubilee also went online! More than
6,523,000 people visited the seven-language website, its pages were
viewed more than 16,220,000 million times. Some 11,800,000 actions were
recorded; 32,000 searches were made; and more than 1,524,000 downloads
took place. Some 8,000,000 people registered with the site.
“Some examples illustrate the communicative power of some events: the
video of Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square confessing young people was
seen by more than 2,398,000 people with over 42,000 likes, 8,000 shares
and 1,500 comments. The picture of Pope Francis in the neonatal ward of
the Ospedale San Giovanni (St John’s Hospital) was seen in a few hours
by more than 1,800,000 people with 6,600 shares. In short, communication
did take place and became a truly global event in the space of a few
minutes.”
Some 4,000 people volunteered during the Jubilee, including 1,800
from the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) who dedicated
exclusively to providing medical services at the four papal basilicas.
They came from 36 different countries, "The oldest was an 84-year-old
man whilst the youngest was 18.”
"All the pilgrims were given the image of a safe city. The Jubilee
began with an unprecedented violent attack in Europe. Fear had
discouraged many from setting out for Rome. With each passing week
however, thanks to effective work maintaining security in the city,
pilgrims were able experience the Jubilee with peace and enthusiasm.”