Macerata-Loreto The Pilgrimage The Positivity of Everything. Life as a Journey More than 60,000 people took part in the XXVI Pilgrimage on foot from Macerata to Loreto. The messages from the Pope, from Cardinal Ruini, Betori and from Fr Giussani by Giorgio Paolucci 60,000 faces, 60,000 histories, 60,000 bodies climbing the last hills towards the Holy House of Loreto. All share the desire that has echoed over two thousand years: “We want to see Jesus.” This is the phrase that guided the twenty-sixth pilgrimage on foot from Macerata to Loreto, and the same is proposed by John Paul II for the World Youth Day planned for next year in Cologne. It’s a question that finds its answer in the presence of those 60,000 people walking through the night between June 5th and 6th, 15 miles covered reciting the Rosary, listening to the witnesses of those who have seen their lives changed by an encounter. Alina, a Romanian girl who, along with 500 of her fellow–countrymen, was a guest of some families belonging to Communion and Liberation, told her story: “I was a foreigner, yet they welcomed me as one of them. I couldn’t yet say that, thanks to those people, I had met Christ, but it was clear to me that here was an exceptional humanity. Later, I understood, and from that moment every instant of my life has been the continuous repetition of that event”–an event that changed her life and is changing the lives of those young Rom near Bucharest, where Alina is working for AVSI. During the night’s walk from Macerata to Loreto, there are many stories like hers, like the witness of Major Jones, of the US Army, read by Riro Maniscalco over the loudspeakers along the way. Together: young students, parents, and old ladies like the mythical Fiorina, the “Granny” of the pilgrimage who, at ninety years of age, goes ahead, leaning on her stick and renewing the same offer she made while still a young girl, walking the paths barefoot. Together: Cardinal Martino, President of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, recalls that “peace is not something you can talk about or discuss; it is a task and a responsibility,” and he invites the youth to work for this, by building bridges between peoples and cultures, in the awareness that merely human powers are radically inadequate for achieving a lasting peace. Together: This pilgrimage has always been an experience of unity between the various components of the Church. It was begun by Fr Giancarlo Vecerrica, thirty years ago a young religion teacher in Macerata and today Bishop of Fabriano-Matelica, and since 1978 promoted by Communion and Liberation, gathering people from thousands of associations, movements and parish groups. At the official presentation of the 2004 pilgrimage, the Bishop of Macerata, Luigi Conti, had stressed, “Now the pilgrimage has given us a method that is proper to CL; it coincides with the journey of faith that is proposed. These 25 years show a dimension that has grown in every sense and throws out this challenge still: the possibility of meeting Christ in the face of Mary at Loreto and on the face of everyone who will walk with us through the night.” Together: A particularly meaningful sign of unity is the presence of Paola Bignardi and Bishop Francesco Lambiasi, President General and General Assistant of Catholic Action. During the meeting at the Helvia Recina Stadium, which precedes the journey, Paola Bignardi stressed that the invitation gave “realization and visibility to a new desire for communion between associations and movements that is felt in the Church’s life today.” And Bishop Lambiasi recalled the Pope’s words: “We will not be saved by a formula, but by a person and the certainty He gives us: ‘I am with you.’ Dear friends of CL, we share these words with you, we, too, want to see Jesus and, along with you, make Him seen. Give us a hand, we want to make Him seen together. Thanks for your fraternity.”