Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 105, December 2007

PILGRIMAGES AND SHRINES:

A VIEW OF RELIGIOUS TOURISM* 

Archbishop Agostino MARCHETTO

Secretary

Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care

of Migrants and Itinerant People

Every human person carries in him a “trademark”, engraved by the Creator, a hiatus, an infinite opening towards the pulchrum, bonum, verum et unum (beautiful, good, true and one), that is, towards the Transcendent, with a capital T. The “Hound of heaven” urges him to look for the Absolute, in its various forms and expressions, in the contingent and relative aspects and events of his very own existence and becoming.

In this itinerary towards transcendence many set out to go to a “holy place”, where they expect to live an experience of the divine, an encounter with their Lord and their God. This journey in faith is commonly called a “pilgrimage” and very often pilgrims cross the boundaries of their homeland to reach their destination. For Catholics this is usually a Shrine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary or their Patron Saint. Prosaically, we could call it an expression of  “religious tourism”.

In fact, tourism is – according to the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council’s Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes[1] – “refresh[ing] the spirit and improving the health of mind and body […] by means of travel in order to broaden and enrich people’s minds by learning from others”[2]. It allows people “to take a break from the rhythm of everyday life” giving them time to consider their “own existence and others’ through different eyes”. Freed from impelling daily concerns, they are given “an occasion to rediscover [their] own contemplative dimension and recognize the traces of God in nature and especially in other human beings”.[3]

Of course, a tourist does not travel with a religious motivation. If he does, then his journey could indeed be called “religious tourism”, and more properly a pilgrimage, when the final destination is a shrine. From this we can see the common ground on which tourists and pilgrims stand, naturally with their differences. 

With a prophetic intuition, the Catholic Church institutionalised the pastoral care of human mobility, which includes tourism and pilgrimages, more than fifty years ago. The Bishop of Rome, the Pope, entrusted this solicitude to our Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.

We also consider ourselves as a “think-tank” and a stimulus, particularly for the Bishops Conferences of the Catholic Church throughout the world, in animating such a pastoral care. Recognizing the tendency to form continental groupings, we thought of organizing meetings of continuing formation for Directors of Pilgrimages and Shrine Rectors. Considering only this year, we organized two of them, one for Europe, in Lourdes (France), and another in Nagasaki (Japan), for Asia. The themes chosen were respectively “Pilgrimages and Shrines: Peace Routes, Spaces of Mercy” and “Pilgrimages and Shrines: Places of Hope”.

In both meetings, as well as in the Fourth European Congress[4] of the same kind in Kevelaer (Germany) in 2004, and in the First Asian Congress held in Manila four years ago, the important element of  “dialogue” – ecumenical, inter-religious, inter-cultural and also between civilizations – was present, especially in the Asian meetings.

This means that there is the same wavelength between our vision and the interest that the World Tourism Organization is expressing today in this International Conference on “Tourism, Religions and Dialogue of Cultures, of Civilizations”.

I should say that here, too, there is a search for peace, with the recognition of the growing importance of the religious element in this regard, in spite of the phenomenon of secularisation. This is because, after all, peace is also an indispensable condition for tourism.

In the pilgrim’s sack there certainly is the desire for peace, a gift from God, entrusted to the hands of people of goodwill. Benedict XVI wrote in his Message for the World Day of Peace this year[5] that peace is both a gift from God and a task. In celebrating the World Day of Tourism[6] in 2001, proclaimed as the “International Year for Dialogue between Civilizations” by the United Nations, Pope John Paul II affirmed that “when properly oriented, tourism becomes an opportunity for dialogue between cultures and a valuable service to peace,” since “by its very nature, [it] contains elements which prepare for this dialogue”. The reason why tourism is a privileged occasion for dialogue between cultures and civilizations is “because it sets before the traveller the specific riches that distinguish one civilization from another; because it summons the traveller to remember history and the social, religious and spiritual traditions which history has shaped; and because it favours an ever deepening exchange of riches between people.”[7]

In this regard, we must not forget that pilgrimages were a factor leading to integration in Europe  (as Goethe stated: “Europe was born in pilgrimage and its mother tongue is Christianity”). That could also be true for other continents[8] and I would like to refer to theme of pilgrimages and hospitality, which is worthy of special attention, considering that it is held “sacred” by various religions.[9]

Expressing here a Catholic point of view, I still feel well-placed in the context of the various religions if we consider pilgrimages in time and space[10], a fascinating theme because it is linked to the universality of this human and divine experience. There are points of similarity, that could be of interest to this Conference, among the different types and various origins of pilgrimages in the search for the “sacred” and the “holy”.

I would like to conclude by calling to mind what we consider the two most important Documents published by our Pontifical Council in this Sector during the last few years. One is regarding pilgrimages, entitled “The Pilgrimage in the Great Jubilee”[11] and the other carries the title “The Shrine - Memory, Presence and Prophecy of the Living God”[12].

Thank you for your attention, and may we have a fruitful Conference.