“Pilgrimages make the faith concrete”

Where does your interest in pilgrimages come from?

As a priest, I lived strong experiences of meeting with God during pilgrimages with young people (scouting, frat …) but it was by replacing my sick parish priest to accompany 50 mothers in Cotignac that I took the full measure of the benefits of this approach. So many fruit result from it! A participant wanted to make her first communion, another, Muslim, to be baptized.

Why do pilgrimages are full today?

The acceleration of our rhythms of life generates a vital need for resources. The start of stress. The frugality it imposes also helps to shed, focus on what you have, what is given. Finally, it is a place of transmission where we put our steps in those of the pilgrims preceding us for centuries, which responds to a thirst for rooting. A fortiori for the believer, which enters a holy story that goes beyond it. In these sanctuaries, he feels fortified, renewed.

What moreover bring local pilgrimages?

They make faith palpable: relics, statues, oratories … It’s very concrete! Above all, they meet a need for conviviality: we are one, we are carried by the group. There is a community life issue: far from home, without support, we are naked before the other. The pilgrimage brings an experience of particular ties to life, which makes the non-believers available to the spiritual approach experienced by Catholics. The companionship of the latter with Christ, at the feet of which they place their burdens, touches them, frees them.