Dear Father,
I heard that the pope is asking people to go on pilgrimage during the Holy Year. Do I really have to go to Rome since I’m a Catholic? I’d love to, but I can’t afford it.
-Chris
Dear Chris,
You’re right that the Holy Father is encouraging everyone to go to Rome to obtain the indulgence for the Jubilee Year, aka the Holy Year. But he also knows that such a trip is impossible for most people for many reasons, especially financial ones.
So, no, you don’t have to go to Rome (or the Holy Land, where three basilicas have been designated as pilgrimage destinations).
But your question begs further questions, such as why does the pope want people to make a pilgrimage in the first place? Are there alternative places to substitute for a Rome trip? What’s the real reason for a pilgrimage?
The pope wants people to make a pilgrimage because of what a pilgrimage means. Pilgrims are those who journey from one place to another in order to obtain something. If a Catholic is a pilgrim, he or she travels to a shrine in order to give a gift to God and to receive gifts from God. You can never, never give a gift to God without Him returning gifts to you a hundredfold.
The gift that a pilgrim gives to God is the gift of oneself as a sacrifice of praise. And God returns the favor by giving Himself with a thousand new graces of union that transform us. By making this sacrificial pilgrimage, a person may even receive a full pardon of all temporal punishment due to sin.
A spiritual pilgrimage is the way we mark or signify the giving of ourselves by a special visit to a particular holy place. It’s different than merely sitting in our living rooms and praying, though not a bad thing in itself.
The effort of getting up and going to this or that specially designated shrine and all the inconveniences involved in the travel are indicators of our desire to give proof of our devotion to God. It’s like the trouble we take to make the perfect birthday gift for a loved one.
A pilgrimage is not a mere fun excursion or a vacation. Making a pilgrimage to Rome may sound exciting and we’re sure to enjoy many parts of it. But the pilgrimage will also entail having to be patient in the midst of many inconveniences and difficult persons we encounter along the way. The ultimate reason for a pilgrimage to visit, as it were, God in one of His special places, places where His power has been revealed in some particular way. But we also will need to show love to all those around us on our pilgrimage. After all, we can’t say that we love God if we don’t also love our neighbor.
A Catholic pilgrimage is meant to remind us that we are always pilgrims in this world. We are always on our way to another place. As Catholics, we are making our way to our real homeland: heaven. This lifelong pilgrimage, like our shorter spiritual pilgrimages, entails no little amount of suffering along the way. But we offer both ourselves and the sufferings as a gift to God.
Mercifully for those of us who can’t afford a pilgrimage to Rome, there are other possibilities. Every cathedral in every diocese is an alternative to going to the basilicas in Rome. Though not as exotic as going to Europe, it does require an effort on our part. Besides going to your cathedral in whichever diocese you reside, you can go to other cathedrals in nearby dioceses.
Also, a number of bishops have named other churches as places to go for pilgrimage. In Columbus, we have three more pilgrimage sites in addition to St Joseph Cathedral: Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption in Lancaster, St. Joseph Church in Somerset or Our Lady of Guadalupe, Star of the New Evangelization at Holy Name Church in Columbus.
I should add here that the Sacred Heart Jubilee continues until June 27 of this year to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. You can go to one of our Sacred Heart churches in Columbus, Cardington, Coshocton or New Philadelphia.
For those who are not able to make even a local pilgrimage, the indulgence or pardon for temporal punishment due to sin can be obtained by devoutly attending a parish mission, study sessions on the Second Vatican Council or the Catechism, or even by visiting those in need: the sick, prisoners, shut-ins and the disabled. Each of these persons becomes a kind of shrine because of Jesus in them.
I can’t help but wonder if the best pilgrimage is right in our own back yard!
For more information, see https://tinyurl.com/4r84ehvz.