Rome, Italy, Nov 15, 2012 / 15:50 pm
In honor of the Year of Faith, pilgrims to Rome can now share their thoughts about the gift of faith by writing them on a special scroll at the Vatican's Pilgrim Office.
"Since it's the Year of Faith people are going to live intense experiences of faith," said the office's director, Father Cesare Atuire, after the scroll's Nov. 15 debut. "So we've decided to create this initiative whereby people can actually leave something written down – their thoughts, their emotions, concerning what their faith really means for them."
Those entries that the Pilgrim Office deems the most inspiring will be posted on a blog associated with it, www.jospers.travel. Fr. Atuire hopes this will "create a mini community whereby we really share our experience of faith."
Designed by New York architect Isabella Mancini, the Faith Scroll can be found in the pilgrim office, which is located just west of St. Peter's Square.
The box-like structure with the scroll on top also features a slot for pilgrims' prayer intentions. These will be collected, read and prayed over at a Mass each month in St. Peter's Basilica during the Year of Faith.
The office will feature clips on YouTube so that people can see the moment when Mass is being celebrated for their intentions.
"This is a new experience in order to communicate our faith," said Archbishop Rino Fisichella of the Pontical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.
He hopes it will assist pilgrims in developing a truly "universal Catholic experience of the faith."
One of the first to sign the scroll, Archbishop Fisichella wrote, "faith is the answer, not one of the answers" to the meaning of life, allowing for "a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, the son of God."
Another signatory, who signed the scroll as Rosamaria Mancini of New York, simply wrote that "Faith is hope, and it's what helps me move forward each day."
A source of information for visitors to Rome, the Vatican's Pilgrim Office also promotes and facilitates pilgrimages to Rome, Marian shrines in Europe and the Holy Land.