About 400 people participated in a Jubilee of Tourism pilgrimage in Rome on Monday, celebrating the unique role the industry plays in supporting the faith and religious experience of millions of pilgrims and tourists. Source: CNA.
Isabella Ruggiero, from the Associations of Qualified Tourist Guides, helped organise the Jubilee dedicated to tourism workers and said the pilgrimage was a way to bring together the professional community that daily supports visitors to Italy and the Vatican.
“This special Jubilee is dedicated not only to tourist guides but to all those who work in the world of tourism: guides, tour leaders, travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, accommodation providers,” Ms Ruggiero said.
“Every pilgrimage and every single trip is the result of the work of dozens of people who help organise and carry out the trip and the pilgrimage at every stage, and who generally remain ‘behind the scenes’: from booking transportation, to cleaning the accommodation where people stay, from conceptual work to the humblest tasks – all are necessary,” she said.
Bishop Antonio Staglianò, president of the Pontifical Academy of Theology and rector of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto, opened the pilgrimage with a Mass celebration at San Salvatore in Lauro, one of Rome’s 13 Jubilee of Hope churches located near the popular tourist destination Piazza Navona.
The pilgrimage also included a candlelit procession over the Bridge of the Angels, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in front of Castel Sant’Angelo, and crossing the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica on the evening the Vatican unveiled its Nativity display in the square.
Roman tour guide Elizabeth Lev said the evening pilgrimage was a “great moment of reconciliation” and a chance to renew her own joy and hope of guiding pilgrims in the Eternal City, especially as the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope draws closer to its conclusion.
“The Jubilee of Tourism was an opportunity for us to become pilgrims, to pass through the Holy Door [at St Peter’s Basilica] for prayer, instead of profession, and to give thanks for the many gifts of the year,” she said.
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Tourism operators celebrate religious dimension of work at Jubilee pilgrimage in Rome (By Kristina Millare, CNA)
