Sister Nazzaro, Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi: “Still Hope for Pilgrimages to the Holy Land”
“Called to convey Christ’s love to the world through the way of beauty”
The new director of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi thanks the Pope and the vicar general for the diocese of Rome for choosing her as the first woman to lead the Office for the Pastoral Care of Pilgrimage of the Vicariate of Rome. Jubilee 2025 first among priorities.
To Pope Francis and the vicar general for the diocese of Rome, Archbishop Baldo Reina, she says thank you from the bottom of her heart: “I am very grateful because I have been called to convey the love of Christ in the world through the way of beauty.”
It is a mission that Sister Rebecca Nazzaro feels even more her own after being appointed, on October 19, as the new director of the Office for the Pastoral Care of Pilgrimage – Opera romana pellegrinaggi (Orp) of the Vicariate of Rome. “And for us, beauty shines in the places touched by pilgrims, places charged with history, culture and faith,” she explains in an interview with Vatican media.
Female touch
Superior General of the 67-year-old Missionaries of Divine Revelation, Sister Rebecca is the first woman to be chosen to lead the pilgrimage ministry. But this is a novelty that does not surprise her all that much: “Women, especially consecrated women, have always had a very important role in the Church. Just think of schools, hospitals, dispensaries, care of the poor, prisoners.
A sea of charity in which the female hand has been a protagonist for centuries, in the simplicity of love for Jesus.” Just days after taking office, Nazzaro has begun to consider the challenges that await her. The first, perhaps one of the most important and arduous, will be the Jubilee of 2025.
“First of all, we have a desire: the people who will come to Rome should not only receive a good material welcome, housing, food, transportation. They should be able to encounter spirituality.” The artistic and architectural beauties that Rome offers will be the main tool to communicate faith, to make known the history of the Church and its future.
Federico Piana – Vatican City