Pilgrimages bring local Catholics to the Cathedral of the Madeleine's Holy Door

Friday, Oct. 07, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — More than 300 people walked from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of the Madeleine as part of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, which will conclude in November.

On the evening of Sept. 30, the pilgrims were motivated by the fact that entering the Holy Door grants indulgences. This was a very important symbolic act performed by each one of the pilgrims. 

The Holy Door “evokes the passage from sin to grace which every Christian is called to accomplish. Jesus said, ‘I am the door,’” said Father Jose Fidel Barrera Cruz, administrator of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, quoting John 10:7.

 “This is something that we were very happy to participate in,” said Marina Rebolledo, who is Catholic but doesn’t belong to any parish of the diocese.

She said that when she heard the news about the pilgrimage from one of her neighbors who is a parishioner of our Lady of Guadalupe, she knew that God was calling her.

“It’s something that I cannot explain. ... I felt like God was telling me that He was expecting me to participate … and now that I did I feel a lot of joy and it’s like my heart is warm,” said Rebolledo. 

“As we consider the Holy Door and particularly the recent Holy Year, our Lord stands at the door of our hearts knocking. We must open our hearts to him and cross the threshold of hope, striving for holiness,” said Fr. Barrera Cruz.

Another pilgrimage took place Oct. 1, as about a dozen people walked the 1.8 miles from Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center to the cathedral. Along the way they recited the rosary and sang Marian hymns.  

The pilgrimages to the Holy Door also offered an opportunity to obtain an indulgence, but this required that the faithful be in state of grace at least at the time the indulgence work is completed; after passing through the Holy Door the faithful needed to recite the Creed and reflect on God’s infinite mercy, as well as pray for the Holy Father’s intentions.

Age, weather and health were not impediments to those walking the 2.2 miles from Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church to the Cathedral of the Madeleine. As they walked the path, they sang, praising God.

“I ended up carrying my little one for some blocks, because she got really tired,” said Virginia Escalante, who participated in the pilgrimage with her 3-year-old daughter.

“When we finally crossed the Holy Door I forgot how exhausted I felt,” she added.

For Sofia Palestino, one of the organizers of the pilgrimage, it was a great blessing to see the response of the community.

“At the beginning we just saw a few people, but suddenly everyone arrived as we started walking and that made my heart explode with joy,” said Palestino.

The next day’s pilgrimage from the Newman Center was organized by local members of the Communion and Liberation movement, which began in Italy in 1954. 

“Every year, since its beginning, the movement has proposed a communitary gesture to start the social year after the summer to help each other to discover and verify the beauty of faith. This year the proposal was a pilgrimage in the occasion of the Year of Mercy,” said Laura Lupi, one of those who organized the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of the Madeleine. 

Lupi said she woke up Saturday morning a little worried about the details of the pilgrimage; this was the first time they had organized such an event, “and maybe some things could have been done better. I was preoccupied all the way from Newman to the cathedral, preoccupied that everybody could hear, that everybody could follow, etc.”

However, once the group went through the Holy Door and gathered in the cathedral’s Lady of Zion chapel to conclude the pilgrimage with the Litanies to Mary, “I saw the faces of my friends, and of the many people I had never seen before, and their faces were so joyful,” Lupi said. “Something way beyond our capability of organizing pilgrimages was happening there. Someone that was able to make those faces so glad. That night after dinner, we could not stop thanking each other for the beautiful day. I went back home with an experience of what mercy is: Someone who comes and meets me, with all the nothingness I am, and makes my heart rejoice.”

Dominican Father Lukasz Misko, pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center, said a pilgrimage – prayer along with physical activity like walking to a sacred site such as the Cathedral of the Madeleine, “is the national language of our Catholic prayer,” and fits into the tradition that encompasses events such as Corpus Christi processions and May crownings.   

The Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy started on Dec. 8, 2015, as “an opportunity to experience the mercy of God and become ever strengthened in our faith,” said Monsignor Colin F. Bircumshaw, diocesan administrator. 

This was the first time in the history of the Jubilee tradition that there was an opportunity for individual dioceses to open a Holy Door – The Door of Mercy.

The Year of Mercy will conclude on Nov.  20, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe.