Rome, Italy, Sep 28, 2010 / 07:05 am
In a letter to participants at an international conference examining pastoral activity at pilgrimages and shrines this week, the Holy Father emphasized the importance of urging pilgrims to encounter and imitate Christ.
A message sent by the Holy Father this month to guide the Second World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Shrines and Pilgrimages was distributed by the Vatican's council for migrants on Monday. The congress is taking place in Santiago de Compostela, Spain from Sept. 27-30 under the theme taken from the road to Emmaus, "He entered to remain with them."
Calling their pastoral work "fundamental" to the ecclesial life, Pope Benedict wrote to participants that since the beginning of his pontificate he also has intended to live his ministry with the feelings of the hope and simplicity of a pilgrim and with the Gospel message "on his lips." The pilgrim's conch on his coat of arms, he said, is an "explicit sign of this mission."
In the strong call to evangelize the world, he said, the "richness that springs" from pilgrimages and shrines is emphasized. He highlighted their "extraordinary capacity" to call people back to the faith, saying "(a)s Simeon found Jesus in the temple, in the same way also the pilgrim must have the opportunity to discover the Lord in the shrine."