Diocesan pilgrimages offer adventures

Intermountain Catholic

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Pilgrims can spend time at the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, where Mass is celebrated and where St. Francis is entombed. IC photo/Christine Young

SALT LAKE CITY — Imagine cruising through the warm, exotic Mediterranean, or praying the rosary at the grotto where the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes in France. Imagine walking where Jesus walked and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, or attending Mass at the tomb of Saint Francis in Assisi.

These are highlights from pilgrimages priests from the Diocese of Salt Lake City will be taking this year.

For one of these pilgrimages, Monsignor Robert Servatius, pastor of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Sandy, will team up with Father Gustavo Vidal, pastor of Saint Mary Parish in West Haven, to take more than 40 pilgrims from the diocese of Salt Lake City to France and Italy Nov. 5-15.

"Pilgrimages are taken so people can encounter and have an experience with God," said Fr. Vidal. "We also want them to encounter the history of the church and be in the places where the apparitions of the Virgin Mary took place."

Msgr. Servatius planned the trip after being asked when he was next going to Lourdes "because people really like going there," he said. "We try to pick a combination of sacred and historical sites. Lourdes will be spiritual, Avignon will be historical and Assisi is a very sacred place, where the crucifix spoke to Saint Francis."

Florence offers culture, while Rome is steeped in Church history and spirituality. In Rome pilgrims will attend a papal audience, Mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica and other shrines, and see the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican museums.

Father Stanislaw Herba, pastor of Saint Mary of the Assumption in Park City and Saint Lawrence Mission in Heber City, will lead an 11-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land Sept. 3-13. They will visit Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee, Gethsemane, the Nativity Church and Capernaum.

Deacon Willis Bassett of Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Layton and retired Monsignor Victor Bonnell, former pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish, have planned a Mediterranean cruise from Oct. 23 to Nov. 7. The ports of call are Venice, Athens, Izmir (Ephesus), Istanbul, Mykonos, Naples, Rome, Florence, Toulon and Barcelona.

"We’ve been on several pilgrimages and to the Holy Land, sites of the apparitions and decided on this pilgrimage to get an overview of where the early church got its foundation," Deacon Bassett said. "We’ll have Mass every day and see the highlights in each of the ports."