Between 16 and 23 August of this year the second International Pilgrimage of the Pauline Family took place and was organized in collaboration with the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi. The event, which is part of the events organized by the General Governments of the FP Institutions on the occasion of the 100 years of the Foundation of the Society of St. Paul and the entire Pauline Family in Alba, saw the participation of about 80 Pauline pilgrims, representing the five continents who have rekindled, in a spiritual and leisurely itinerary the experience that, in Alba and in Rome, has characterized the life of Blessed James Alberione as priest and Founder and also of the Apostles Peter and Paul, indispensable charismatic points of reference for everyone.
Fr. Guido Colombo SSP, assisted by Fr. Nestor Candado SSP, accompanied the pilgrims. The itinerary started in Rome where, for the first day, the pilgrims visited the Basilica Regina Apostolorum, the Rooms where Fr. Alberione lived in the SSP General House and the adjacent Museum, the Church of Jesus Master of the Pious Disciples and the adjacent apostolic sectors of the Sisters. In the second day, the pilgrims visited the St. Peter's Basilica and the places that have characterised the "Roman itinerary" of St. Paul, thus, the Church of St. Paul at the Regola, the Basilica of the Tre Fontane which is the place of his martyrdom and the Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, his burial place.
The pilgrimage then continued in and around Alba with the visit to the "alberionian" places of origins. The first day, 20 August, the centennial anniversary of the Foundation, the pilgrims were able to visit the birthplace of the Founder in San Lorenzo di Fossano, the Church where the little James Alberione was baptized and the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Bra. In the afternoon, the participants took part in the solemn Eucharistic Celebration of the Centenary, held at the Church of St. Paul in Alba and the subsequent dinner and classical concert which was offered by the Superior General Fr. Silvio Sassi. In the second "piemontese" day in the morning, the international group was able to journey to Cherasco, visiting the Church of San Martino where Fr. Alberione celebrated his First Mass, the Madonna delle Grazie and at Narzole, hometown of the first priest and first blessed of the Pauline Family, Joseph Timothy Giaccardo. In the afternoon it was the turn of a more in-depth visit to the city of Alba, the cradle of the Pauline Family, with a stop at the Church of St. Paul, with the explanation of its interiors and exteriors, at the Sanctuary of the Moretta, from where the inspirational mandate of the apostolic commitment with the media of communication started, at the Diocesan Seminary where Fr. Alberione was trained and formed, at the Alba Cathedral where the young James received the "light" from the Eucharist that showed the will of God for his life and at the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, where Canon Francis Chiesa, spiritual Director and first counsellor and friend of Fr. Alberione and of the FP, was parish priest,.
Filled with joy and satisfaction the pilgrims concluded their experience by returning to Rome and from there to their homes. Not to be overlooked is the fact that, during the Roman sojourn, the pilgrims were housed in the Casa Divin Maestro of Ariccia, functionally included in the itinerary because it would discharge, aside from the practical function of a hotel, also that great significant "foundational memory" of the general Pauline spiritual-apostolic vision that was formulated and realized by Fr. Alberione and that, in the year of the Centenary, was certainly precious to reconsider and given importance..
centenario