It will depart from Italy on Thursday 16 May 2024 train full of hopesdreams, desire to live, energy and faith.
On board, over 400 people, including doctors, volunteers and, in particular, children with disabilities and patients from Italian pediatric hospitals. The destination? Lourdes.
The special pilgrimage of the “children’s train”
The journey to Marian sanctuary of the south of France will take place from 16 to 22 May and will be a time to socialise, reflect and discover others and oneself.
This is an initiative, presented on Wednesday 8 May in the Presidential Hall of the Ostiense station in Rome, the result of the collaboration between the Italian Fs Foundation, Unitalsi and Fs Italian tourist trains which will see two large convoys leaving from Bari and Reggio Calabria (one will follow the Adriatic route and the other the Tyrrhenian one) to arrive together in Lourdes.
“The one on the train it is the real journey to Lourdes, as a community is created within it, people get to know each other, help each other, talk to each other, there are human relationships” underlined Monsignor Liberio Andreattapresident of the Fs Foundation and former CEO of the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, introducing the event and recalling the years of his first pilgrimages to the sanctuary.
The choice of the train for this special pilgrimage, in fact, is not random but inserted with the objective of understanding the true meaning of a trip to Lourdes with aspects that, over the years, have been lost and that cannot be appreciated when traveling by plane.
Andreatta in fact added “The true miracle of this place is knowing how to accept oneself, one’s condition, and having a different vision. I often looked around and realized that there are those who are worse off“.
The concept was also reiterated by Alessandro Vannini Scatolipresident of Fs Italian tourist trains: “With our project we give meaning to the experience, it is a path that takes on a value of sociality, redemption and humanity that we are losing over time“.
The experience of the pilgrimage by train for the little ones
During the presentation conference, Eugenio PatanèMobility councilor of the municipality of Rome, in turn brought attention to the presence of children on the train: “It’s nice that even little ones can begin to appreciate this means of transport, Europe is focusing a lot on our railway corridors“.
The speech was concluded by the CEO of Fs Italian tourist trains, Luigi Cantamessaand the national president of Unitalsi, Rocco Paleseand both focused on the importance of a train journey.
In particular, Palese highlighted the experience of pilgrimage by train or “experience a journey of faith with a sick person, listen to extraordinary stories. With children this meaning is even stronger and more intimate“.
Cantamessa, however, explained how he had had the idea of creating a similar initiative for years, a project which, thanks to the train, “it makes us travel to Lourdes again in an authentic way, even if today’s mobility is more modern than in the past“.
Finally, a look and a desire also for the future: “I see a return of the trains of “faith”even towards large national places of worship such as Assisi and Loreto, I confirm to Unitalsi that our presence will always be there“.