Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect for the Congregation for Clergy, stated
in a recent letter to all Catholic shrines around the globe that they
provide a crucial opportunity to evangelize the thousands of tourists
who visit them each year.
“Shrines maintain an extraordinary
attraction for the faithful, shown by the growing number of pilgrims
that go to them,” the cardinal said. “To visit a shrine can be for them a
valuable opportunity to encounter Christ or to rediscover their sense
of baptismal vocation and to hear its saving call.”
“Frequently
one finds men and women of every age and condition, with complex human
and spiritual situations, sometimes removed from a sound life of faith,”
he added.
In an Aug. 12 letter to priests and rectors of
shrines, Cardinal Piacenza first expressed his gratitude for the
“attentive dedication” they give in addressing the pastoral needs of the
pilgrims “who approach the places of worship entrusted to your care in
ever greater numbers from every part of the world.”
He then
outlined several ways in which shrines become an opportunity for
visitors to be touched by God, specifically through the Scriptures, the
sacraments of Reconciliation and of the Eucharist, adoration, prayer
vigils and the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the saints.
Cardinal
Piacenza said that presenting the depth and beauty of the Church
through its sacraments will challenge “the pervasive sense of relativism
that currently reigns” and enable shrines to “become places that
facilitate a renewed dynamism directed towards the greatly desired new
evangelization.”
He also encouraged priests and rectors to be warm
and inviting to visitors as well as deeply informed on the teachings of
the faith.
“I exhort each of you to direct to direct your
sights to these persons in a particularly welcoming and attentive
manner,” the prefect said.
“With evangelical wisdom and with a
generous sensitivity, it would serve as an example to make oneself the
companion on the journey with pilgrims and visitors, seeking to identify
the reasons of the heart and the expectations of the spirit that have
brought them there. “
A “welcoming humanity, spiritual
insightfulness and theological intelligence, will help in introducing
the pilgrims to the Shrine as an event of grace, a place of religious
experience and of rediscovered joy,” he added.