On Tuesday, 21 April 2026 at 6:00 p.m., at its headquarters in Via Francesco Negri 67/69 in Rome, UAAR will present the first results of its analysis of the public costs of the Jubilee.
“While the Vatican is planning a new Holy Year for 2033,” says Roberto Grendene, secretary of the Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics, “UAAR has chosen to fund a research grant at the University of Florence to analyse, in a scientific and impartial manner, the economic, environmental and political costs of the 2025 Jubilee and to understand whether, with due justification, one can speak of ‘holy damage’.”
The Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics, whose statute states its commitment to “acquiring knowledge through the scientific method and supporting freedom of research,” will present the first results of its analysis of the public costs of the 2025 Jubilee on Tuesday, 21 April 2026 at 6:00 p.m. at UAAR’s headquarters in Via Francesco Negri 67/69, Rome. In a bleak climate of deference marked by billions in public spending, the association has decided to fund a research grant at the University of Florence to study the urban-planning and legal impact of the Catholic Holy Year on Rome and on the Italian state. UAAR has monitored the costs of the Jubilee through the website Carogiubileo.it, which documents, up to July 2025, the allocation of €4.8 billion in public funds.
Speaking during the evening of 21 April — the date on which Rome’s Birthday is celebrated, the secular commemoration of the city’s foundation, traditionally set on 21 April 753 BCE — will be Marco Croce, professor of Law and Religion at the University of Florence; Giacomo Pirazzoli, professor of Architectural and Urban Design at the University of Florence; Francesca Tesi and Marco Gissara, holders of the research grant funded by UAAR; and Roberto Grendene, UAAR secretary.
Initial Analyses of the Jubilee
Tuesday, 21 April 2026 — 6:00 p.m.
Via Francesco Negri 67/69 — Rome
Drinks reception to follow
Press release
