Italian
Presented in Milan on the occasion of the national fair “Fa’ la cosa giusta”, the project “Cammini della Fede” promoted by the Italian Episcopal Conference. The initiative aims to start a census of all the itineraries present in the Italian territory, thus building a large network of ancient and new pilgrimage routes. In particular, for the Holy Year, the first seven routes are proposed which, due to their characteristic of arriving in Rome as the final destination, can be indicated as “Jubilee Walks of the Churches in Italy”. These are the Via Francigena del nord, the Via Francigena del sud, the Via di Francesco, the Via Lauretana, the Via Amerina (also known as “The Path of Light”), the Via Romea Strata, and the Via Matildica.
“The pilgrimage is the metaphor of the urgency of change, of conversion, which is made of renunciations, of love, and of willingness to follow the truth. Walking means facing the sacrifice of detachment: it is not possible to walk, to follow the Lord, to reach Him, without the will to leave the security of home, some comfort, and some consolidated idea. We set out on a journey towards a God who, in Jesus Christ, comes towards us. The pilgrimage is also a metaphor of this encounter: God walks towards us and we are attracted by His face in order to love Him so that life may be filled with reasons, joy, and an inexhaustible and uncontrollable hope,” recalled Giuseppe Baturi, Archbishop of Cagliari and Secretary General of the CEI, in a video released at the beginning of the presentation.
The first tool of this project is a WebApp (www.camminidellafede.it), designed by the organizers to support pilgrims with insights for reflection and useful information. For each path, ecclesial points of interest are highlighted, georeferenced, divided into three sections, which summarize the basic needs of travelers: pray, eat, sleep. “The WebApp makes visible the various routes and stages to be covered with all the points of interest. Furthermore, it provides liturgies, prayers, spiritual writings, podcasts as well as a digital diary where to jot down moments, thoughts, reflections to share, all or in part, with other users,” explained Danilo Di Leo and Filippo Andreacchio, who, together with the Information Service of the CEI, developed the tool.
The proposal made to pilgrims is to walk at least 100 km or cycle 200 km on any of the Jubilee Paths, even without necessarily having to reach Rome. Upon reaching the kilometers, the WebApp will generate a certificate of completion with which one can receive the “Testimonium” from the competent authorities during the Jubilee through the Dicastery for the Evangelization – Section for the fundamental issues of evangelization in the world.
