home > the pope's apostolic pilgrimages

THE POPE'S APOSTOLIC PILGRIMAGES

Each single travel of the Pope is "a real pilgrimage to the live sanctuary of God's People".... That is how Pope John Paul II himself explained the real meaning of His pastoral visits to Countries and local Churches accross the world.
As St. Peter did, the Pope travels supported by the prayer of the whole Church, in order to announce the Gospel and to confirm his brothers in the Faith, to give comfort to the Church and to meet mankind.
The Pope also said that Rome is not in Rome any longer, but as the very heart of a pilgrim Church, it has become a pilgrim on the road through the world.
For this reason Vatican Radio offers its listeners a minute by minute coverage of the Pope's Apostolic Pilgrimages.

Pope Paul VI has inaugurated the international apostolic pilgrimages of the XXth century with His pilgimage to Holy Land during II Vatican Council. And before Pope Paul VI the only Pope who had crossed italian borders had been Pope Pius VII (1800-1823) when Napoleon Bonaparte exiled Him at Fontainebleau (France) in june 1812.

Benedict XVI
John-Paul II
Paul VI