Macerata-Loreto The Pilgrimage A Clear Goal Ruini e Betori Dear friends: once again this year you are holding the Youth Pilgrimage from Macerata to the Sanctuary of Loreto, now in its 26th year . We want to accompany you with some words of encouragement, thus witnessing our common intent and spiritual nearness. The many young people who follow the roads of the pilgrims of old re-propose a gesture that is the expression of search and commitment, aware that life requires the determination and effort of taking one step after another. However, what matters on the journey is above all the clarity of the goal: for us, as the Holy Father reminds us, it is the face of Christ. With Him, we repeat the longing of the first disciples: “We want to see Jesus.” Our life must make Him “seen” by those who are looking for Him. The unanimous and fervent invocation passes through Mary’s hands and its rhythm is marked by the prayer of the Rosary and by the witness of lives illumined by the presence of Christ. It is thanksgiving for the scholastic year, now approaching its close, but it is also intercession to the Blessed Virgin for peace in those regions of the world where arms bring suffering, sorrow and death, particularly in the Holy Land and wherever Christians are suffering for their faith. The fiftieth anniversary of the birth of Communion and Liberation gives particular meaning to this appointment, inviting us to remember how joining together to give form to life starting off from the encounter with Christ is able to generate true novelty–evangelical novelty–in human history. And it is a fine thing that, in ecclesial fraternity, the great pilgrimage organized by Catholic Action at Loreto next September is also remembered in your prayers. We assure you of our remembrance in prayer for the happy outcome of the Pilgrimage, we thank all those involved in the organization, and we send heartfelt greetings to the participants, invoking on all the Lord’s blessing. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, and Giuseppe Betori Secretary General