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For decades I have had a special interest in pilgrimages, the theme of this issue of America, and have studied the works of Victor Turner and others who shared my fascination. And I have myself been a pilgrimto Rome, the Holy Land and, all too easily because I once lived nearby, to Canterbury and Lourdes.

Rome was easy enough: the first time, honestly, as a tourist; the second time, to talk my way out of a job that would have kept me there for 20 years. The Holy Land was different. I did not go as a Jesuit priest, but as a college professor. I was part of a group from an association called American Professors for Peace in the Middle East, sponsored by the This article appears in February 25 2008.