THE SHRINE: MEMORIAL, PRESENCE AND PROPHECY OF THE LIVING GOD

VATICAN CITY, MAY 25, 1999 (VIS) - In the Holy See Press Office today, Archbishops Stephen Fumio Hamao and Francesco Gioia, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, presented the document: "The Shrine, Memorial, Presence and Prophecy of the Living God."

Published in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish and Portuguese, the document is dated May 8 and is composed of an introduction, three chapters and a conclusion. Its aim is "to echo the spiritual life that buds in shrines, the pastoral commitment of those who discharge their ministry there and their effect ... on local Churches."

Archbishops Hamao and Gioia, the authors of the document, write: "In relation to the unique and definitive past of the salvific event, the shrine is given as a memorial of our origin in the Lord of heaven and earth. In relation to the present of the community of the redeemed ... it appears as a sign of the divine Presence. ... In relation to the future fulfillment of the promise of God, ... the shrine is set as a prophecy of God's tomorrow in the world's today."

The first chapter, "The Shrine, Memorial of the Origin," indicates that "the significant meaning of every shrine is to be a reminder in the faith of the salvific work of the Lord. ... One enters a shrine first of all to give thanks, ... to express praise to the Lord for the wonders that He worked; to ask His forgiveness for the sins we have committed; to implore the gift of fidelity in our lives as believers and the help necessary for our pilgrimage in time."

Chapter two is entitled "The Shrine, Place of the Divine Presence." Here the authors write that "the shrine is the sign of the divine Presence, the place of an ever new actualization of the alliance of human persons with the Eternal and among themselves." It is also "the place of the Word (of God) par excellence, in which the Spirit calls to the faith and brings about the 'communion of the faithful'." Furthermore, shrines are "privileged sacramental places. This is especially true for the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist," the celebration of which "gives a particular dignity to the shrines."

The president and secretary of the dicastery then turn to the question of ecumenical commitment, saying that it "may find shrines (to be) places where (ecumenical) promotion is exceptional since, in them, the change of heart and holiness of life that are the 'soul of the whole ecumenical movement' are promoted, and the grace of unity granted by the Lord is experienced."

"At the same time, shrines (represent) a sign of contradiction with respect to pseudo-spiritualistic movements, like New Age for example," because they promote a strong sense of the primacy of God, thus contradicting a general religious sentiment based exclusively on human faculties.

In the third chapter, "The Shrine, Prophecy of the Heavenly Homeland," it is indicated that "the shrine assumes a prophetic importance, because it is a sign of a greater hope, that points to the ultimate and definitive goal."

The authors of the document highlight that it is "important to promote collaboration, and the formation of associations among shrines, especially those of the same geographical and cultural area, and the coordination of their pastoral action with the pastoral care of tourism and human mobility in general."

In the concluding section, "those who have the responsibility for the pastoral care of shrines" are called to "pay constant attention so that the various expressions of Marian piety be integrated into the liturgical life which is the center and the definition of the shrine."

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