THE SHRINE, A PLACE OF INTERIOR RENEWAL

VATICAN CITY, MAY 25, 1999 (VIS) - Archbishops Stephen Fumio Hamao, Francesco Gioia and Crescenzio Sepe, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, and general secretary of the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee Year 2000, today presented the document: "The Shrine, Memorial, Presence and Prophecy of the Living God."

Archbishop Hamao spoke of the importance of shrines, both because of the large numbers of pilgrims who visit them, as well as for the "renewal of life that they are capable of generating. In shrines, the sacramental life of the faithful becomes more profound, especially in the celebration of the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist."

He went on to say that the document is, above all, directed to priests, religious and lay persons who greet and accompany the pilgrims who visit the shrines and is "an aid in their pastoral work and a mark of gratitude for their efforts."

Archbishop Gioia presented a list of the sites of the world's most famous shrine: Guadalupe, Mexico; San Giovanni Rotondo, Padua, Assisi, Pompeii, Loreto and San Gabriele (Teramo), all in Italy; Aparecida, Brazil; Montmartre and Lourdes, both in France; Czestochowa, Poland; Lujan, Argentina; Fatima, Portugal; Santiago de Compostela, Spain; the Holy Land; Mariatzell, Austria; Knock, Ireland; San Juan del Valle and Immaculate Conception, both in the U.S.A.; Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast; Walsingham, UK.

For his part, Archbishop Sepe highlighted that "those who work in the service of the shrines and those who spiritually accompany the pilgrims must zealously and attentively prepare for the spiritual and pastoral celebration of the Jubilee."

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