LMU Students Explore Faith, Art, and Pilgrimage During the Franciscan Jubilee

Last summer, students in LMU's "Christian Faith and Visual Culture in Rome" course had the opportunity to participate in the 2025 Jubilee, themed "Pilgrims of Hope," which called Christians to take intentional responsibility for the safety and dignity of all who cross borders. This year, students had another unique opportunity to study in Rome during a rare extension of the Jubilee, which typically occurs once every 25 years. Proclaimed by Pope Leo XIV, this year's Franciscan Jubilee marks the 800th anniversary of Saint Francis' death. Running until January 10, 2027, it transitions the global Church from a focus on hope to a year centered on active charity, mercy, humility, and care for creation.

"Christian Faith and Visual Culture in Rome" is an accelerated summer study-abroad course that explores Rome's ever-transforming urban fabric and its impact on humanity throughout the history of Christianity. The class primarily takes place outside the traditional classroom, and is taught onsite in Rome by Fr. Marc Reeves, S.J., associate vice president for Mission and Ministry and director of Catholic Studies in LMU's Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, and Kirstin Noreen, professor and chair of Art History in LMU's College of Communication and Fine Arts. The program model has been developed, refined, and adapted each year, and was recently highlighted in a publication found in Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.

One way Catholics are encouraged to participate in this year's Franciscan Jubilee is by visiting Franciscan pilgrimage sites, which students had the opportunity to experience firsthand during this summer's course. "We had a special focus on the Via di San Francesco pilgrimage through an integration of Bonaventure's Life of St. Francis and a pilgrimage walk of 13 miles from Foligno to Assisi," explains Noreen.

Embarking on the pilgrimage and engaging its rich religious, historical, and artistic context inevitably shapes students on personal, intellectual, and spiritual levels. "I think that the pilgrimage was an invaluable opportunity for our class to come closer as a group while learning more about St Francis," reflects one student who took the course this year.

Through visits to several sites, students encountered the diverse faith traditions of the ancient Roman world while examining the religious, social, historical, and artistic contexts in which specific works and structures were created. Experiences included visits to Rome's historic synagogues to discuss Jewish-Christian relations, participation in a large multilingual Sunday Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, and tours of the Gesù, the mother church of the Society of Jesus, which illustrated the Jesuits' role in the Catholic Reformation.

Students returned to LMU with a deeper appreciation for the existential importance of engaging ultimate questions in their historical and cultural complexity, as well as a greater understanding of the search for God as a culturally embedded process. They share their experiences through presentations, site-visit videos, and campus events, continuing their transformation into active global citizens. In doing so, they also carry forward St. Francis' vision. As stated in the 2026 Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary, "Our times are not very different from those in which Francis lived, and precisely in light of this, his teachings are perhaps even more valid and understandable today. [Thus] may the hope that saw us as pilgrims now be transformed into zeal and fervour of active charity."