giancarlo riuscitti

N. 2/2000

Giancarlo Riuscitti

The Pilgrim Charta is the instrument the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the year 2000 has focalised on to manage the event and to ensure all pilgrims the participation to the Jubilee events.

It was deemed indispensable to ensure that all pilgrims coming from all over the world could participate to the desired events without being at risk, after undergoing possible discomforts and out of common costs, the attendance to an event for the lack of seats in the place where the expected ceremony will be celebrated.

Indeed, the estimations carried out by the Roman Jubilee agency point out more than 30 million presences, against the 9-10 millions of tourists that every year arrive to Rome.
The Charta must be a concrete reply to the following requirements:
- Warranting the pilgrims the certainty to participate to the events on calendar;

- Ensuring the religious authorities celebrating the events the most useful information;

- Ensuring civil authorities the data that will change day by day, and concerning the presence in Rome of pilgrims in order to organize assistance services.

10 million copies of the Charta, on microchip and magnetic band, will be produced in 15 months lifespan and performing an especially complex undertaking never put in act in Italy and implying the setting out of a well-structured and functional body.
The Charta will show in the front, besides the logo of the Jubilee, the title of the Charta, belonging to the Great Jubilee Central Committee, the personal data of the titular of the Charta, the expiring date for the use of public transportation and an identification code.

In the microchip of the Charta the following data, concerning the events object of the booking, are stored:
- insurance data (expiring date in order to the insurance covering) to warrant all the pilgrims that do not have other forms of safeguard.

The Pilgrim Charta warrants certain classes of pilgrims a set of services going from the third-party liability to the reimburse of medical expenditures, assistance performing, health transportation and others;
- health data, collected only from those that, coming from foreign countries and having of course linguistic troubles, deem expedient pointing out peculiar aspects of their health condition, in order to make physicians' work as quickly as possible in case of necessity. Naturally data will be, in order to the privacy safeguard, cryptograph and will be read only in emergency hospitals;
- data related to reservation of Basilicas, Churches and Aula Nervi for celebrations that groups of pilgrims intend to require for their pastoral or to live together the jubilee moment.
It's foreseen indeed the possibility to book Chapels, Altars or Basilicas/Churches, the Aula Nervi or the participation to pontifical audiences, to organize or to participate to special ceremonies (also in several languages) to be agreed with the on charge responsible, in the view wanted by the Holy Father that it must be the entire Roma Church to receipt the pilgrims coming from all over the world;
- data concerning the catering services (number of places booked enjoyable in the structures of a Consortium Body established this purpose) in order to make available a net of qualified catering points managed by the best firms of the sector, featured by the certainty of a qualified and low cost service, without undergoing standing queue at the restaurants and free form cash payments;

- data concerning additional services as reservation at museums or Catacombs;

- data related to logistic packages (stays or itineraries) arranged by the central Reception Service (SAC - the service the Central Committee wanted to establish in order to favour the stay of the pilgrims and to organize all the possible services that may be required during their stay in a Rome) including all information required by groups and related to hotel accommodation capacity, prospective transfers, trips or special visits required.

The Charta will also report the validity period for the free transport in town by metro, all the means of the ATAC and the COTRAL, the National Railways within the big ring road and on the Fiumicino airport - Rome leg.
This way, by the means of a prepaid modality, it is assigned to the Pilgrim Charta the value of a travel title.
The amount related to phone services is on the magnetic band and allows calls from prepaid Telecom Italia phones (more than 130.000 in Italy) and may be employed also abroad till June 30th 2001, benefiting from 25% - 30% reduction in prices.

Finally by simply showing the Charta it will be possible to acquire certain goods at discounted prices for which they are performing agreements and that will be noticed at the handover of the Charta.

So the Pilgrim Charta is multifunctional modality to use an articulated set of services in advantage of the pilgrim and that witnesses the work of the Reception Service in order to create the best conditions of liveability of the jubilee events.

Giancarlo Riuscitti
Dir.Sistemi Informativi
Ospedale Bambin Gesù - Roma