The feast of St. Ignatius marked the beginning of this first year of the jubilee, which will last until July 31, 2016, in Loyola and Manresa.
In Loyola, the start of the Jubilee Year took place on August 1st with a solemn Eucharist concelebrated by Mgr Jose Ignacio Munilla, the Bishop of San Sebastián, the bishop of Bilbao, the Archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela, the Fr Provincial of the Society of Jesus in Spain, and numerous priests.
A plaque at the entrance to the Sanctuary of Loyola was blessed, and it will mark from now the beginning of the Ignatian Way for pilgrims all over the world.
Before that, Fr Jose Carlos Coupeau, dean of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Deusto, explained the christian meaning of the Jubilee Year: “It is time to open doors, a time of joy and gladness, a time to walk".
In his homily, Mgr Munilla said that the path of St Ignatius from Loyola to Manresa, "is especially significant and bright for the men and women of our time", because the "pilgrimage" is a "key to understanding our own existence".
At the end of the Eucharist, it was read the letter written by the Superior General of the Jesuits, Fr Adolfo Nicolas, on the occasion of the first Jubilee Year of the Ignatian Way. He says: "engaging in a pilgrimage is something that marks the person, because the pilgrim learns to discern what is essential in his life and in the reality around him”.
