A Filipino priest says he will embark on a pilgrimage through France and Spain this week to pray for the new Philippine government and its peace efforts with communists and Islamic rebels.

The 800-kilometer journey, which will begin in France’s St. Jean Pied de Port, will follow the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) pilgrimage route which ends in Spain.

The pilgrimage is expected to last 26 days, said Redemptorist Father Amado Picardal who is based in Mindanao, the southern Philippines.

He said he will use this “mobile spiritual retreat” to pray for transformation of Philippine society under newly installed President Benigno Aquino III.

The priest, who has cycled for peace in the Philippines, said he will pray especially for Aquino’s administration to reach a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the outlawed National Democratic Front-Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army.

Separate government panels are being formed to negotiate with the two groups, Aquino’s Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles had said in a televised interview earlier this month.

The Philippine government has been engaged in on-and-off peace negotiations with the two groups to end armed conflicts that have lasted more than four decades.

Father Picardal completed a course on Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue in Rome on July 10 and will travel from there to France to begin his pilgrimage.

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