Guiding souls: Jubilee volunteers lead pilgrims across Holy Door

ROME (CNS) -- Before the millions of pilgrims expected to come to Rome during the Holy Year 2025 cross through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, they will be met by smiling faces and lime green jackets.

Jubilee volunteers of all ages and nationalities have become a mainstay along the boulevard leading up to St. Peter's Square since the start of the Holy Year.

Wearing uniforms emblazoned with "volontario" across their backs and the Jubilee and Vatican logos on their chests, the volunteers line the pilgrims' path, offering guidance and companionship on their spiritual journey.

They escort pilgrims along the final leg of their pilgrimage to the Holy Door, checking passes, providing directions and accompanying groups in prayer.

For Craig and Laura Shlattmann -- a married couple of Jubilee volunteers from Tacoma, Washington -- participating in the current Holy Year has been 25 years in the making.

Craig was stationed in Italy for military service, and the couple lived in Rome during the Holy Year 2000. Back then they "vowed, God willing, to come back for the next ordinary Jubilee year in 2025," Laura told Catholic News Service.

After Craig's recent retirement, the couple decided to fulfill that promise. "We returned not just for ourselves and our own experience but also to help our family, friends and everyone who comes to Rome to experience this special year," Craig said Jan. 23. "It's been a real blessing."

Though volunteer positions are open to all Catholics over 18 who can volunteer at least one week of their time at the Vatican, the Shlattmanns committed to moving to Rome for the duration of the Jubilee Year to host friends and family making pilgrimages to the Eternal City and assist other pilgrims.

Volunteers arrange their own travel to Rome, but once they arrive, the Dicastery for Evangelization provides meals and accommodations at the "Domus Spei," a former convent in central Rome equipped with dozens of rooms and 100 beds. Applicants must submit a letter of introduction from their parish priest or another representative of a church organization.

The dicastery said it had received more than 7,000 volunteer applications before the start of the Jubilee.

In their day-to-day activities, the volunteers "are here to smooth the pilgrim's path so that they can focus on their spiritual journey along the pilgrim way," Laura told CNS.

Accompanying pilgrim groups is "a truly holy experience," she said, particularly when guiding them toward the altar over St. Peter's tomb.

"You can feel their love, you can feel their faith, and to realized that I am blessed enough to accompany them, it's just amazing," she said.

While participating as a pilgrim is powerful, Craig emphasized that volunteering offers a unique perspective. "To be a volunteer is to serve, and we're serving our brothers and sisters in Christ, many of whom have come many, many miles at great expense to have a special, probably a once in a lifetime, experience."

Although volunteers often accompany large groups of pilgrims through the Holy Door, the Shlattmanns said even smaller encounters with pilgrims leave a lasting impression.

Craig recalled witnessing a young priest and a layperson assist an elderly person to walk across the threshold of the Holy Door. "You could see their reverence and the excitement that they had," he said, expressing gratitude for the blessing that is helping others reach the culmination of their long pilgrimage.

And obtaining that blessing beats out any other trip one could plan for 2025, Laura said.

"Put the ski vacation on hold for a year, put the cruise on hold for a year," she said. "Come to Rome, do it for you, do it for your children, do it for your grandchildren, do it for your soul."