Popular religiosity is “a genuine form of evangelisation” which should always “be promoted and encouraged, without downplaying its importance”. Pope Francis said this at the beginning of his address to the participants in the world meeting of pilgrimage operators, parish priests, and shrine rectors and workers, who are celebrating their Jubilee in Rome. The Pontiff recalled that “it is in the shrines that our people live their profound spirituality, that piety which has shaped faith throughout the centuries, with simple but highly significant devotions”. “It is interesting to note that Blessed Paul VI in his Evangelii Nuntiandi speaks of popular religiosity saying that it would be better to call it ‘popular piety’. And the Latin Bishops in the Aparecida Document take a step forward by referring to it as ‘popular spirituality’. The three concepts are valid if taken together”. “Let us think about how intense prayer becomes in some of these places – prayer to the Crucified Christ, the Rosary, or the Way of the Cross”, Pope Francis continued, giving some concrete examples. “Making a pilgrimage to the shrines – he said – is one of the most eloquent expressions of the faith of the People of God, and reveals the piety of generations of people, who have believed and entrusted themselves humbly to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the Saints”.