Pilgrims with QR code-Diepresse.com

The male wooden crosses are neatly lined up on a frame – clearly visible behind the glass front of the inconspicuous container. Here, on the Piazza Pia in Rome, which was redesigned for the Holy Year right next to the Engelsburg, the path of pilgrims starts. For some it is the last stage of a long way to stop. Most of them may have traveled by train or plane. Your pilgrimage will not even take half an hour. The pilgrimage also adapts to the hustle and bustle of modernity.

The Holy Week and Easter are a first highlight of the visit in the Holy Year, and around half a million tourists came to the holidays last year. In this container on the Piazza Pia, which was set up for the Holy Year, you register. « Pilgrim? » Asks the young woman behind the counter briefly. « Yes. » Quickly pulled out the digital pilgrimage, the QR code that confirms the reservation of the time window is scanned, and then it says: « Hurry! » The group you have to join is ready. In the IUBILAEUUM25 app, several people can also be registered via an account – from two, one is already an independent group of pilgrimages.

Which does not mean that you also get your own cross. The secular principle counts here: Whoever comes first grinds first. The dozen other pilgrims with a 3 p.m. reservation is ready to start a few meters from the container on this day with a view of St. Peter’s Basilica. A family man from Portugal is in the front row and visibly proudly holds the wooden cross in front of him, ready to guide the grouped group through the holy gate.

The bronze door to St. Peter’s Basilica is only open for a holy year. Anyone who steps through the Holy gate is promised to delete all sins in the hereafter. In the letter from the Apostolic Pönitiarie it is emphasized that all other conditions remain in force even during the Holy Year. Specifically, this means that only « truly rusty » believers who « moved to sin and a spirit of charity », with the exclusion of any tendency to sin « , confessed to Holy Communion and pray in accordance with the Pope’s intentions.

Motto

Whether you belong to this group is up to you. It won’t be checked, as it is? The Vatican expects up to 30 million pilgrims this Holy Year, which bears the motto « pilgrim of hope ». Archbishop Rino Fisichella explained to the election of this guiding leader, the representative for the anniversary that he was deliberately universal. « Everyone hopes – nobody is excluded. »

As soon as the 15 o’clock group is complete, a young woman opens the black barrier in the bright green volunteer jacket, which clears the path of pilgrims. For them, a kind of own road on the otherwise populated by masses of tourists via della conciliazione was set up: planted concrete buckets separate the pilgrims from the rest of the Rome visitors. A straight path leads you directly to St. Peter’s Basilica and the holy gate.

Other people in Grellgrün wake up that the path is really free. « Rencettiamo la croce », we respect the cross, whisper one of the volunteers to a hectic passerby who wants to cross the pilgrimage quickly before the group arrives at its height. But there is no way here: the pilgrims have right of way.

At least somewhat shielded from the tourist hustle and bustle, the group follows the cross carrier. The world cannot be completely hidden. Shortly before the finish, the pilgrimage path is suddenly interrupted by the mandatory security check: Without a fluid of the bags and a walk through the metal detector, nobody comes to St. Peter’s Basilica. At least this year, however, their own stations for security control were set up for the pilgrims. At least the annoying queue falls away.

And so the holy gate has been reached after only 15 minutes of pilgrimage. The walking through is accompanied by church ringing, which sounds in constant loop from loudspeakers set up next to the doors. Once in the cathedral, it goes to the tomb of St. Peter and that was already: Once again, there is a volunteer to place, takes away the wooden cross to the self-proclaimed boss of the 15-o’clock group and thus disappears quickly towards exit. On a pillar in front of the basilica, six more crosses are already waiting to be brought back to the starting point.

On some days, it takes about as long as the pilgrimage experience itself to get the certificate in the pilgrimage center. It does not need more than the naming of the name and paying two euros (three if you want a cardboard tube for safe transport), and you hold the firm certificate in your hands. The seal and signature of Archbishop Fisichella testify that you are « mighted to Rome during the anniversary ». Even if it was only 20 minutes.