Parishioner goes on a Year of Faith pilgrimage in Utah, receives plenary indulgence

Intermountain Catholic

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Patricia Droubay prays invocations before the Blessed Virgin Mary at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Salt Lake City. IC photo/Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — As part of the Year of Faith, the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, has designated 12 parishes in the diocese as pilgrimage sites. Parishioners can receive a plenary indulgence by going on a pilgrimage to any one of those parishes.

"A pilgrimage is a walk or journey to a place that helps us reflect on the joys and sufferings in our life," according to Bishop Wester’s letter in the Pilgrimage Passport, a document that offers information about each Utah site and tracks visits to them.

The Year of Faith declared by Pope Benedict XVI began Oct. 11, 2012 and concludes Nov. 24, 2013.

The most common way to obtain a plenary indulgence is by making a sacramental confession, receiving the Eucharist, praying for the Holy Father’s intentions and making a special visit to a holy site designated by the local bishop.

In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI declared, "To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shown with particular splendor and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe."

Patricia Droubay, a member of Saint Olaf Parish, was baptized at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Salt Lake City, one of the 12 pilgrimage sites. She said she realized her spiritual growth and how far she has come as she returned to the roots of her baptism on a pilgrimage to the parish, and by doing so was granted a plenary indulgence.

Droubay has been a special education teacher for 27 years in the Granite School District and, for the past 15 years, at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School. She also was a second grade religious education teacher at St. Olaf Parish for 12 years, preparing the students for First Communion and later taught seventh grade.

She has a special affinity to Our Lady of Lourdes.

"One year for Christmas, the religious education teachers received a family prayer book, which had in it a novena to Our Lady of Lourdes and a picture that went with it, which I loved," said Droubay. "My father’s heritage is French, and I felt a connection with the apparition at Lourdes. There have been times when I have faced challenges in my life and have prayed this novena."

Recently Droubay was looking for her baptismal certificate and found a picture of her godparents, which heightened her connection to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and to Lourdes, France.

Because she was baptized at Our Lady of Lourdes in Salt Lake City, and learning that the parish has a Ladies of Charity chapter, "I felt another heartfelt connection to the parish," said Droubay, who two years ago joined the St. Olaf Ladies of Charity chapter. "It makes me feel a sense of peace and God’s grace, and I hope that I can humbly fulfill whatever the Lord has in mind for me to live up to my baptismal promise to carry the cross of Christ; yet revel in jubilation for the good and happy things that happen in this life."

Her pilgrimage experience was humbling, she said. "I do my best to make good choices in my life, but I know that I am a sinner," said Droubay, adding that her favorite sacrament is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. "I believe the graces we receive open our spiritual lives. To have a plenary indulgence is like being washed in the good graces of our baptism, which is overwhelming to me. I hope that I can live the kind of life that will renew my spirit and enable me to be a servant of God."

Information on the 12 parishes in the Diocese of Salt Lake City designated as places of pilgrimage, is available at www.dioslc.org/year-of-faith/diocese-of-salt-lake-city-pilgrimage.