(Editorial) “Continued in the next issue”, by Samuel Lieven

After one hundred and fifty years of existence worthily celebrated in 2023, here is The Pilgrim No. 7500: the first French weekly to have so many publications since its foundation! Proud? How can we not be… Readers, journalists, this crazy press adventure is beyond us.

No. 1 was July 12, 1873. The Pilgrim was then a liaison bulletin for pilgrims from Lourdes led by monks, the Augustinians of the Assumption – still the sole shareholder of the Bayard group today. In 1896, No. 1000 saw the introduction of color. In 1925, No. 2500 carried the apostolic nuncio in Paris on its cover and asked, in the international section: “What has become of Trotsky? » (sic). In issue 5000, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, then President of the Republic, saw the family as “the place of happiness”. As for Nos. 6000 and 7000, they had already made their figure a cover event.

Over the last five hundred issues, less than a decade, everything has accelerated. Here is war returning to Europe and democracies brutally confronted with the return of empires. Climate change has become tangible. The rise of social networks and artificial intelligence is disrupting everyday life, politics, the economy and human relations. The facts themselves find themselves disputed, put into perspective, sometimes swept aside by opinions. We have changed times.

The Pilgrim yet continues its journey, with the same ambition: to understand this world without cutting ourselves off from those who inhabit it. There are new challenges to illuminate, suffering to hear, joys to share and, always, faces to meet. This number 7500 not only marks a longevity record, but a new milestone. We are crossing it in particular with a new columnist, Charlotte Pérot, who became a winegrower in the Lot with her husband Louis, after thirty years of city life. Former publisher and former bookseller, they have a love of writing, four children, a thousand commitments and above all, energy and hope to share. With the designer François Ravard, they enrich your appointment in “The world better”.

And because the rest can only be written with you, take the opportunity to become an ambassador of Pilgrim. Turn the page, we’ll explain everything. A simple gesture for you; so valuable for the future of the newspaper. On the way to number 8000!