The fifth annual John Paul II Pilgrimage Peace Marathon was launched Friday, April 18th, from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, with Italian athletes carrying the torch that received the blessing of Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.
This unique marathon, an initiative of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and the Vatican-based travel agency Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, is a fascinating encounter between pilgrims from Italy and other European countries and athletes from Bethlehem and Israel.
The marathon aims to encourage Catholic pilgrimage tourism to the Holy Land and to promote peace in the region. The marathon takes place with the cooperation of the Municipality of Jerusalem.
A delegation of 1000 pilgrims, headed by senior Vatican clergyman Cardinal Camillo Ruini, has arrived in Israel in order to participate in the marathon. About 100 Italian athletes run the 10-km route alongside Israeli and Palestinian athletes, leaving from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem via Rachel's Crossing and ending the marathon at the Notre Dame Church, Jerusalem.
A message from the Pope was read at the festive ceremony marking the completion of the marathon in the presence of Cardinal Ruini and representatives from the Ministry of Tourism and the Jerusalem Municipality. Representatives from the Ministry of Tourism distributed medals specially made for the marathon, bearing the image of the late Pope John Paul II.
62-year old-Italian marathon runner Ulderico Lambertucci, who entered the Guinness Book of records with 46 marathons in one year, has completed a special pilgrimage to Jerusalem, running and carrying a message of peace, co-existence and inter-faith dialogue.
Lambertucci set off on his 6,000 km marathon run from St. Peter's Square in the Vatican on World Peace Day, 1 January 2008.
Lambertucci's run took him through Italian cities that serve as symbols for co-existence and friendship between East and West such as Venice and Ancona, via the Balkan countries including Croatia and Bosnia which witnessed cruel wars in the recent past, and Greece and Turkey, which serve as an important bridge between East and West.
As part of his peace mission, Lambertucci also ran the 21-kms International Arad-Masada half-marathon on Wednesday, 16 April, together with over 100 Italian and Israeli runners.
The Ministry of Tourism's efforts to increase incoming pilgrimage traffic has borne fruit.
Recently, Opera Romana, the official Vatican travel agency and the largest Catholic travel agency in the world, announced the operation of six weekly charter flights from Italy to Israel.
These flights will provide an answer to the increase in Catholic tourism from Italy: an increase of 70% in incoming tourism from Italy was recorded in February 2008, with over 5,000 tourists visiting Israel, as opposed to 3,000 in February 2007.
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