Marco Ceccarelli at the Jubilee of Volunteering 2025: an experience of hope and solidarity

Over 25,000 volunteers from all over Italy participated in the Jubilee of Volunteering 2025, held on March 8th and 9th in Rome. Thanks to the invitation of Don Cristian Bogdan, director of the Diocesan Caritas of Foligno, Marco Ceccarelli, an Umbragroup employee and a Valter Baldaccini Foundation volunteer, participated and shared his significant experience during this event that celebrated hope and solidarity, fundamental values for volunteering and the Christian faith. 

Marco's experience at the Jubilee 2025

“It is not easy to describe the different emotions I felt during these days spent at the Jubilee of Volunteering. For me it was an experience filled with activity and significant reflections.

I arrived in Rome in the late afternoon of Friday, March 7, there were 800 of us, coming from the various Italian offices of Caritas. I was immediately greeted by a phrase from Pope Francis that particularly struck me: “Volunteering is the way towards others, a path to take care of others”.

The testimonies of Don Marco Pagniello, Director of Caritas Italiana, of H.E. Mons. Carlo Roberto Maria Radaelli, President of Caritas Italiana and of H.E. Monsignor Calogero Peri, Vice President of Caritas Italiana helped me to reflect on the role of the volunteer, on the meaning of the Jubilee for us believers and on the passage, as a pilgrim, through the Holy Door.

The following day began with Holy Mass and a meeting with Don Luigi Ciotti. With him we spoke about humanity, charity, solidarity, and justice. Then in the afternoon, around 5 pm, after a long wait I passed through the Holy Door. I brought with me thoughts for all my colleagues at Umbragroup, especially for those who are currently experiencing difficulties and for whom hope takes on a particularly important meaning.

The theme of this Jubilee is hope and in these days I have had the opportunity to reflect a lot on this. Can you do something without hope? No. Everyone has their own hopes. Hopes are not linked to possessions but to love. We have hope that the people we love are well, that they can live fully, freely, and independently. Our hearts are heavy when we do not feel loved or when the people we love are going through complicated and painful times.

Hope is the lever for doing and planning even when the results are not visible, and the efforts seem not to bear fruit. Hope is the reason for living. If there is hope there is life, and if there is earthly life there must be hope in all the seasons of one's existence. We must never lose hope, otherwise we stop doing the right things and get lost in the abyss of loneliness or ephemeral things. For this reason, it is the duty of each of us to spread hope. Volunteering must be focused on spreading hope and not only on the distribution of material goods.

In these days at the Jubilee of Volunteering I brought with me a symbol that represented the company I work for and the Valter Baldaccini Foundation: the diary that Valter Baldaccini wrote in 2006 during his first trip to Kenya. Isn’t it to give hope that so many projects of concrete help for vulnerable people were born from that trip?

Our pilgrimage ended on Sunday with the Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Square, which unfortunately Pope Francis was unable to celebrate due to the health problems he is facing these days. Participating in the function from the Sacrato and being able to see from above the crowd of 25,000 volunteers, united in hope, was deeply emotional”.