Façade of St. Peter’s Basilica. (Vatican Media)
ROME – With less than a year to go until the opening of Pope Francis’ “Jubilee of Hope” in 2025, an organization of young Christian entrepreneurs says they see the occasion as an opportunity to raise Rome’s profile as a hub of entrepreneurship and innovation. .
The members of the Christian Union of Businessmen and Leaders (UCID), a private organization of believers made up of leaders and businessmen who base their work on the principles of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, want to energize the business and generational sectors in Rome. making it more competitive and less dependent on tourism.
Benedetto Delle Site, a Roman businessman in the finance sector who serves as president of the youth sector of UCID, was quoted in Italy’s paper of record, La Repubblica, as saying the jubilee for Rome is “the last call, we need a pact with businesses to relaunch the image of the capital city.”
“Rome is late,” he said, noting that the city lags behind many other European capitals in terms of non-tourist industries.
“Rome can become the world capital of ethics applied to innovation,” he said, saying the city “has the characteristics of being a laboratory of a development model that puts man at the center. In this sense, the Jubilee represents an opportunity.”
Delle Site noted that Rome recently lost the bid for hosting the prestigious Expo 2030 event, during which a slew of companies and organizations belonging to a specific industry or niche gather to showcase new products, services, and developments.
In late November, Saudi Arabia was announced as the location for the next Expo event, scheduled for 2030, with Riyadh gathering nearly 70 percent of votes. South Korea came in second, and Rome came in third place, with just 17 votes.
Calling the defeat “a humiliation for Italy but also for Europe, once disunited,” Delle Site said Rome “has played its cards wrong” and lamented that in recent years the city “has continued to slip down the rankings. “
Despite an increased influx of tourists as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a “continued abandonment of professionals and high-profilers,” Delle Site said.
“Our city is deluded into thinking that it can benefit from the beauty of its monuments and its prestige as a political capital. “In reality, he says, only “a few giant companies that can now be counted on” the hands of a hand, have a headquarters, he said.
Delle Site said the “humiliation” of losing the bid to host Expo2030 can be good for Rome, “if it helps to provoke a burst of pride.”
“Transforming Rome into a global capital at the forefront of public services and with adequate infrastructure must be the national priority,” he said.
On the eve of the Jubilee of Hope, which will officially open next December, Delle Site sees the occasion as an opportunity for Rome, not only as a source of inspiration and religious devotion, but also for entrepreneurs and marketing professionals who want The city it grows. Your profile in the monetary and generation sector.
The jubilee, he said, is “an appointment that no one can borrow, but Rome is seriously overdue. “
“Let’s look beyond the tourism and structure sectors. There are three significant facts: Rome is the spiritual capital of Christianity, that is, of at least one and a half billion Catholics; it is the leading university centre in Europe; and it is the moment in the region of the country for the number of startups and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) at the forefront, which is an expression of the capacity and creativity of young people,” he said.
These three points combined can help Rome have a globally identified style and the global capital of “ethics applied to technological innovation,” Delle Site said, arguing that Rome has what it takes for the popularity “of a progress that puts other people at the center. “. »
In this sense, the jubilee is “an opportunity to overcome all the limitations that paralyze the city. “
The Jubilee of Hope will be officially celebrated from December 8, 2024, with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, until the feast of the Epiphany in January 2026.
According to Italian Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who leads jubilee planning efforts at the Vatican, about 32 million pilgrims will pass through the Eternal City during the jubilee period.
In the run-up to the 2025 Jubilee, the Vatican, the city of Rome and the Italian government unveiled in January an ambitious series of public works designed to make life less difficult for others in attendance, and announced plans to spend around $2. billion in citizen projects.
However, while Delle Site complains about Rome’s backwardness in the business sector, locals also lament delays in structural projects planned on the eve of the jubilee.
Over the summer the leading business association in Italy, Confcommercio, wrote to the mayor of Rome and other government officials demanding that they abandon plans to build a tram to carry pilgrims from Rome’s main train station, Termini, to the Vatican, which is currently projected to run down a broad stretch of Via Nazionale, one of the main arteries in Rome.
The association’s president, Pier Andrea Chevallard, called the assignment an “unnecessary burden” for contractors in the area, fearing that it would not be completed on time and that all those who show up for the jubilee would be excluded from the structure. zone.
Chevallard proposed postponing the works until the end of the jubilee, reflecting the conviction of Italian businessmen and advertisers that the city is not capable of meeting its commitments within the planned deadline.
The municipal government responded by assuring that everything would be fine, but the citizens remain convinced.
Neighbors also opposed the construction of a new car underpass at the foot of Via della Conciliazione, the main street leading to St. Peter’s Basilica, which in theory should ease traffic and allow the road surface to be completely pedestrianized.
Although useful in principle, the task is a headache for the citizens of the domain, as the structure has completely disrupted daily life, bogging down the entire domain in intermittent traffic that causes an average retention of at least between 30 and 40 people. five minutes.
Locals doubt that the task will be completed on time and already lament the large influx of tourists and devotees expected to flock to the city in the jubilee year.
Yet despite the various challenges on the horizon, Delle Site appeared optimistic, saying he wants to make Rome “a great hackathon to experiment with digital ways of enjoying art and culture, an intelligent, sustainable and finally safer mobility, connecting the world of research, the great energy and telecommunications giants, and encouraging the transfer of innovation cascading onto SMEs, generating jobs for the most qualified young people who are expatriating today.”
“Only a pact with business, within the framework of subsidiarity, can revive the symbol of the capital and bring back those who have left Rome,” he said.
Follow Elise Ann Allen on X:@eliseannallen
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