Sacred Pilgrimage
Everyone is on a spiritual journey, but more and more people are making that journey real by going on a sacred pilgrimage. Two years ago, at the First International Congress on Tourism and Pilgrimages in September, the United Nations released figures that showed that one out of every three tourists worldwide is a pilgrim. Pilgrimage is enjoying a boom, despite studies that show the number of persons who claim to be religious has decreased.
Millions of Muslims just made a pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia this month. To make the Hajj, an Arabic word that means pilgrimage, is one of five key pillars of Islam. This five-day journey re-enacts the rituals established by the prophet Muhammed. The Hajj is believed to be the largest annual gathering of people in the world. Muslims aren’t alone in their quest for a sacred sojourn. Every year, millions visit the Holy Land, whose sacred sites draw Jews, Muslims, Baháí’s, and Christians. However, it is Mexico that is home to what is believed to be the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world. An estimated 20 million people travel to The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City where the mother of Jesus is believed to have appeared to a Mexican peasant named Juan Diego in 1531. And an estimated six million pilgrims visit Lourdes, France, each year transforming the small southwestern town into the second most important center for visitors in the country—with Paris being the first. Mary is believed to have appeared in Lourdes in 1858 to a peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous who was later canonized.
During this Jubilee Year of Mercy, countless pilgrims are traveling to Rome to visit the Vatican. Many of them will walk through the Holy Doors at St. Peter’s Basilica, blessed by Pope Francis as a sign of God’s mercy and compassion. The Pope is encouraging those who can’t make it to Italy during the Jubilee to visit Holy Doors closer to home. Here in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Holy Doors have been dedicated at The Cathedral of Christ the King, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Philip Benizi, Our Lady of the Americas, and Holy Vietnamese Martyrs. The Pope believes that those who enter these Doors of Mercy will “experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.”
Sacred pilgrimages ultimately symbolize our walk toward a God who walks toward us each and every day.