The Conference entitled “The Sanctuary: house of prayer” gets underway tomorrow in the Paul VI Hall

Five years after the previous gathering in 2018, the 2nd International Meeting for Rectors and Pastoral Personnel of Shrines begins tomorrow, entitled “The Sanctuary: house of prayer. On the way towards the 2025 Jubilee”. There will be around 600 participants from all over the world, with 43 countries represented in Rome. Starting on Thursday 9 November at 3pm and continuing for the following three days, the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican will be the venue for numerous conference participants who will lead discussions over nine work sessions. The event will open tomorrow with a speech by Father Ermanno Barucco, Professor of the Teresianum Pontifical Theological Faculty  with a speech entitled "The prayer of intercession".

The meeting, which is being held in the context of preparations for the Holy Year of 2025, is organized by the Section for Fundamental Issues of Evangelization in the World which forms part of the Dicastery for Evangelization. The conference will end on Saturday 11 November 2023, with a speech by the Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, on the theme "The Sanctuary - towards the Jubilee of Hope", followed, at 11.30am by an audience with the Holy Father.

After Italy (which will send the largest delegation with 285 participants), the country with the strongest presence will be the Philippines with a delegation of 78 rectors and sanctuary personnel. There will also be 45 representatives from France and 31 from Brazil present in Rome, along with smaller groups from Vietnam, Senegal, Madagascar, Uganda, Haiti, Ecuador, South Korea, Chile, Burundi and Argentina among others. After Europe, with its 380 participants, Asia will be the continent with the next-highest attendance (100).

The other speakers who will give discourses at the conference are: His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Archpriest Emeritus of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, on the theme "Welcoming and pilgrims and sending them out on their way", Father Paul Brendan Murray, a professor at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, on the theme “The sinner's prayer”, Monsignor Marco Frisina, the composer and Rector of the Basilica of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere on the theme “How to pray through music and singing”, David Lopez Ribes, a painter and winner of the 2012 Pontifical Academies Award on the theme “Prayer in art”, and Father Daniel Cuesta Gómez SJ, of the Youth and University Ministry of Galicia on the theme “Popular prayer”. On the afternoon of  Friday 10 a new project entitled, "A Census of Sanctuaries in the ecclesiastical regions of Italy", curated by Giustina Aceto, professor at the Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum will be presented.

You can find the full program here:

http://www.evangelizatio.va/content/pcpne/en/attivita/santuari/II_Incontro_Santuari_2023.html