Your Eminence, Your Excellencies, dear brothers in the episcopate!

It is with great joy that I welcome you today at the tomb of the Apostle Peter, pastors of the Church in Madagascar, who have come to Rome on the Jubilee pilgrimage. This meeting has a particular significance for me, because it is our first meeting. I give thanks to the Lord for this occasion of fraternity in Christ.

I must also tell you that I admire your decision to come all together to Rome, as bishops of Madagascar. It is a good sign of unity, already agreed with beloved Pope Francis, whom we feel spiritually present also at this time. He visited your country in 2019, and three years later, he welcomed you on your ad limina Apostolorum visit. This time it is the Jubilee, the year of grace proclaimed by the Lord Jesus, that has brought you here.

And it is good that you have become pilgrims of hope, together with the thousands and thousands of faithful who cross the Holy Doors of the papal basilicas every day. You are first and foremost pilgrims of hope for yourselves: you, who are pastors, have remembered that first of all you are sheep in the flock, to whom Christ says: “I am the gate for the sheep. … Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (Jn 10:7-9). And at the same time, you have become pilgrims of hope for your people, for families, for the elderly, children, the young; so that the Churches in Madagascar, through you, may receive the grace to walk in the hope that is Jesus Christ.

I am pleased to listen to you tell of the joys and the pastoral trials you faithfully bear. Your closeness to the people of God is a living sign of the Gospel. I encourage each one of you, in your episcopal ministry, to take particular care of the priests, who are your first collaborators and your closest brothers, as well as the religious brothers and sisters who spend themselves in service.

I give thanks for the missionary vitality of your particular Churches, heirs to the witness of the saints who, to bring the Gospel to that distant land, feared neither refusal nor persecution. I would like to remember Henri de Solages, the first missionary who did not let himself be discouraged by failure and imprisonment, or the martyr saint Jacques Berthieu, whose blood was the seed of Christianity in Madagascar. May your example continue to strengthen you in the giving of yourselves to Christ and to his Church, amid the successes and pastoral trials you go through in order to reach the people of God in the various realities of your dioceses!

I urge you not to take your eyes off the poor: they are at the centre of the Gospel and are the privileged recipients of the proclamation of the Good News. May you recognize in them the face of Christ, and may your pastoral action always be inspired by a concrete concern for the little ones. May your ministry in this Jubilee, beyond its trials, help them to ignite the ever-new horizons of the hope offered by Christ.

Following Pope Francis, I invite you to take care of our common home, to preserve the beauty of the Great Island, whose beauty and fragility have been entrusted to you. Care for our home is an integral part of your prophetic mission. Take care of creation, which weeps, and teach your faithful the art of protecting it with justice and peace.

Dear brothers, continue your service with courage and hope. The Successor of Peter accompanies you with his prayer and his affection. May the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Madagascar, protect you. May Blessed Raphaël Rafiringa, Blessed Victoire Rasoamanarivo, Saint Jacques Berthieu and all the saints of your land intercede for you. I bless you from my heart.
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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 16 June 2025