To Hope Is to Bear Witness

On Saturday, 8 November 2025, in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father continued his catechesis on Christian hope by adducing the example of Isadore Bakanja, an African laborer, who, by his hope bore witness to those who maltreated him.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning and welcome!

The hope of the Jubilee is born from God's surprises. God is different from what we are used to being. The Jubilee Year pushes us to recognize this diversity and translate it into real life. This is why it is a Year of grace: we can change! We always ask for this when we pray the Our Father and say: "On earth as it is in heaven."

Saint Paul writes to the Christians of Corinth, inviting them to realize that among them, the earth has already begun to resemble heaven. He tells them to consider their calling and see how God has brought together people who would otherwise never have met. Those who are more humble and less powerful have now become precious and important (cf. 1 Cor 1 :26-27). God's criteria, which always begin with the least, are already in Corinth an "earthquake" that does not destroy, but rather reawakens the world. The word of the Cross, to which Paul bears witness, awakens the conscience and reawakens the dignity of each person.

Dear brothers and sisters, to hope is to bear witness : to bear witness that everything has already changed, that nothing is as it was before. This is why today I would like to speak to you about a witness to Christian hope in Africa. His name is Isidore Bakanja , and since 1994 he has been counted among the Blessed, patron of the laity in the Congo. Born in 1885, when his country was a Belgian colony, he did not attend school, because there was none in his city, but became an apprentice bricklayer. He became friends with the Catholic missionaries, the Trappist monks: they spoke to him about Jesus, and he agreed to follow Christian instruction and receive Baptism, around the age of twenty. From that moment, his witness became ever more luminous. To hope is to bear witness: when we bear witness to new life, the light increases even amidst difficulties.

Isidore , in fact, finds himself working as a farm laborer for an unscrupulous European master, who cannot stand his faith and his authenticity. The master hated Christianity and the missionaries who defended the indigenous people against the abuses of the colonizers, but Isidore will wear his scapular with the image of the Virgin Mary around his neck until the end, enduring every kind of mistreatment and torture, without losing hope. To hope is to bear witness! Isidore dies, declaring to the Trappist Fathers that he bears no resentment; indeed, he promises to pray, even in the afterlife, for those who have reduced him to this state.

This, dear brothers and sisters, is the word of the Cross. It is a lived word, which breaks the chains of evil. It is a new kind of strength, which confounds the proud and overthrows the powerful from their thrones. Thus, hope arises. Often, the ancient Churches of the global North receive this witness from the young Churches, which impels them to journey together toward the Kingdom of God, which is a Kingdom of justice and peace. Africa, in particular, calls for this conversion, and it does so by giving us so many young witnesses of faith. To hope is to testify that the earth can truly resemble heaven. And this is the message of the Jubilee.