St. Peter’s Basilica is launching a new monthly magazine titled “Piazza San Pietro” (St. Peter’s Square) for the 2025 Jubilee. It includes a section where Pope Francis will respond to a letter sent by a reader. In the first edition, to be published this coming December, the Pontiff answers the letter of a grandmother, who is worried about her 5-year-old granddaughter who hasn't been baptized.
“What will Jesus think about all this?” writes the concerned grandmother, Oliva, from Bergamo (northern Italy).
“Baptism cannot be imposed on parents who do not want it for their children. You grandparents, however, by your example, can open many hearts that seem closed,” the Pope writes back to her.
This new monthly magazine is part of a series of communications initiatives, including a new webcam showing the Tomb of St. Peter, organized by St. Peter’s Basilica for the 2025 Jubilee and presented during a press conference at the Vatican on November 25, 2024.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of the Basilica and Father Enzo Fortunato, the Basilica's Director of Communications, detailed the new projects.
This first issue of this new magazine numbers around 80 pages - including some 15 of advertisements - with entries written by members of the Curia such as the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Secretary General of the Synod, the Pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and other Italian writers.
Oliva’s difficulty
“I am a grandmother of three grandchildren. Their arrival has been a great gift that has brought so much joy to us grandparents and to our two daughters,” Oliva writes in her letter to the Pope.
She explains that her youngest granddaughter, age 5, was “not baptized because her parents, who were civilly married, drifted away from the Lord during their teenage years,” and still now have no interest in getting to know God.
“This is a source of great suffering for me because I know how important it is to have the Lord at our side, to pray to Him, to listen to Him and to receive His love,” the grandmother continues. “I imagine my granddaughter without this great gift, without the Sacrament of Baptism, she who is so curious about Jesus’ story.”
“What will Jesus think about all this?" Oliva asks.
"I will continue to pray that He will help us open the hearts of her parents, and may come alongside my granddaughter in the trials of life, and be her friend and companion on her journey,” Oliva concludes, asking Francis for his “comfort and advice.”
The Pope’s response : “I understand your suffering”
“I understand your suffering and I am close to you,” Pope Francis writes in his response. “Baptism is a great gift that we can give to little ones, because it is the first of the sacraments; it is the door that allows Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to take up residence, in our person.”
“To baptize a child is to trust in the Lord, in the Holy Spirit, because [...] the Holy Spirit enters into that child, and the Holy Spirit causes that child to grow, from the beginning, in Christian virtues that will later flourish,” the Pope explained.
To those who wonder what the point is of baptizing a child, since the child cannot understand what is happening, Pope Francis says that it is the opportunity for parents to give “something extraordinary” to their children, which is the ability to feel like children of God and to understand that he is a Father that “accompanies us always in life.”
Patience and being an example
“If her parents have drifted away from faith, do not lose hope. Prayer can do so much. It works miracles,” the Pontiff told Oliva, citing the example of St. Monica’s “unceasing prayers” for the conversion of her son, St. Augustine.
“Through prayer, love with the hope of resurrection. Authentic, selfless love creates strong bonds that can be surprising.”
“Don't think too much about worldly celebrations, because this is one of the reasons that sometimes leads so many away from the faith,” the Pope continued, calling Oliva instead to be patient and live her faith simply in her parish.
“Baptism cannot be imposed on parents who do not want it for their children. You grandparents, however, by your example, can open many hearts that seem closed. Carry on the dialogue always, [...] with hope, with meekness, and with charity,” the Pope encouraged. “Accompany your children, talk to them, but without insisting on the proposal of Baptism. Free love is more persuasive than many words. God's love sows the future, it sows friendship, it sows a search for Him, and we do not know his timing.”
“Prayer will certainly help you. You will see. Courage, forward together and don't forget to pray for me,” the Pope concluded, signing simply “Francesco.”
