Caravaca accelerates preparations for the celebration of the Jubilee Year 2024

Lorca Planes presides over the Solemn Eucharist this Sunday with which the activities of the Preparatory Stage of the Jubilee Year 2024 begin. The ceremony takes place in the Basilica Santuario de la Vera Cruz from twelve noon and is being concelebrated by several episcopal vicars led by by the vicar general of the diocese of Cartagena, Juan Tudela, and several priests.

The older brother’s lieutenant, Ángel Luis Navarro, apologized for the absence of older brother Luis Melgarejo for health reasons and referred in the initial presentation of the celebration to the need to “prepare ourselves with zeal and dedication, not only materially, but also also and very especially in the spiritual, and thus prepare ourselves to live this preparatory stage as a true event of grace».

Present at the event were the mayor of Caravaca de la Cruz, José Francisco García; the Minister of Finance, Luis Alberto Marín; the director of ITREM, Juan Francisco Martínez; the regional deputies Víctor Martínez-Carrasco and Consa Martínez, as well as various civil and military authorities and representatives of the State Security bodies and forces.

The ceremony began with a procession along the central corridor of the temple and with a memory of the recently deceased Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, once again making his presence in Caravaca present to participate in the Preparatory Stage of the Jubilee Year 2003 and the granting of the title of basilica for the Sanctuary of Vera Cruz, which he signed in December 2007.

first activities

The opening of this time of preparation, led by the bishop of the diocese of Cartagena, is accompanied by the launch of activities to welcome and spiritually accompany pilgrims, such as the ‘At the foot of the Cross’ project; an initiative that will be extended to all the groups of Caravaca, ecclesial, festive, social or economic, to participate every Friday afternoon in a Via Crucis from the parish of El Salvador to the Basilica of Vera Cruz and one Saturday a month , a torchlight procession beginning inside the temple with a time of adoration before the Sacred Relic, a tour around the wall and return to the basilica to end at the foot of the Cross.

On behalf of the Brotherhood of Vera Cruz, it has been announced that during the month of January a new recruitment campaign will begin to increase the number of volunteers of all ages who, depending on their availability, will be able to help accompany pilgrims during the Jubilee Year and will collaborate in the development of the celebrations.

Regarding the objectives of this Preparatory Stage, from the religious institution it is insisted that “it is a special time, a time of active waiting, to organize everything necessary so that the encounter of the pilgrims with the Cross of Caravaca in the Year Retiring is a unique experience. “Our specific task – they add – is to attend to the groups that arrive in the city and who want to participate in the activities that we are preparing.”

It is planned to contact the nearest dioceses to bring information about the Jubilee Year and also with others with which relations have been established on the occasion of the celebrations of the Quinaries of Exaltation in 2021 and 2022.

municipal actions

The mayor of Caravaca, José Francisco García, before beginning the celebration, referred to the projects that are going to be developed in the city during these coming months, highlighting the works to condition part of the San Mamés Palace, on the Uribe bridge, as a Center of Reception to the Pilgrim; the paving works on the esplanade of the Vera Cruz basilica; to the recovery of the cellars of the Casa Museo de los Caballos del Vino and the restoration of the hermitage of San Sebastián; in addition to advancing the role that Caravaca will have in the international tourism fair, Fitur 2023, leading the regional offer of internal and religious tourism.