Pilgrims in Rome for the Pauline Jubilee Year can follow the footsteps of the Apostle to the Gentiles through a special tour and earn a special certificate the "Paolina"
Benedict XVI is scheduled to inaugurate the jubilee at Saturday evening's vespers, in a ceremony at St. Paul's Outside the Walls. The Pauline year ends June 29, 2009, feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi is supporting the initiative with hospitality for the pilgrims and a special Pauline itinerary, presented in Rome earlier this month.
The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi is the Vatican institution whose mission it is to evangelize through pastoral tourism and the ministry of pilgrimage.
Father Cesare Atuire, delegate administrator of ORP, said St. Paul is a special protector of the organization, "because [he] was a great pilgrim. It is said that he journeyed between 14,000 to 16,000 kilometers (8,700 to 9,950 miles) in his time. And what does a pilgrim do? During his journey, as he walks, a pilgrim evangelizes, and this is what Paul did.
"He traveled, preached the Gospel, was a witness of the Resurrection in all the places he visited. And I believe that we, too, who are trying to take man through the streets of the world, also want our travel to be a form of evangelization."
4 main stops
The itinerary for the Pauline tour includes four essential stages in following the Apostle and his proclamation. The papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, where the saint's body rests, is the first stop. The Abbey of the Three Fountains, where he was martyred, is the second. Pilgrims will also stop at St. Peter's Basilica and the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
Upon completing the journey, pilgrims will receive a type of diploma, the "Paolina," in keeping with the tradition of having a momento of their journey on the roads of Europe.
The pilgrimage also includes five secondary stages: two points of Paul's residence in Rome -- the churches of San Paolo alla Regola and of Santa Maria in Via Lata; the Mamertine prison, near the Roman Forum, where he was last in prison before his martyrdom; the basilica and catacombs of St. Sebastian on the Via Appia, where Peter's and Paul's bodies rested for some decades; and the church of St. Prisca on the Aventine, residence of Sts. Aquila and Priscilla, who looked after Paul and accompanied him on his mission to Greece and Asia Minor.
The time allotted for the pilgrimage is one or three days.
And to prepare for the pilgrimage, the priest recommended reading St. Paul's letters, "because he was a person who, like us, did not know Christ, in the sense that he did not meet Jesus while he was on earth. He had the experience of the Risen One and this experience transformed his life. He lived it with a great explosion of freedom. For us, especially in the West, where there is a certain exhaustion in the experience of faith, to rediscover Paul gives us enthusiasm to carry on."
On the Net:
Pauline itinerary:
http://www.josp.com/index.php?option=co ... &Itemid=11
Official Web site for Pauline year:
http://www.annopaolino.org/index.asp?lang=eng
