Atmosphere of joy and devotion marks historic ACN pilgrimage to Rome
Over 1,000 people from many different countries took part in the Jubilee of Hope pilgrimage and witnessed the election of Pope Leo XIV in St Peter’s Square.
An atmosphere of profound joy and steadfast devotion marked the recent pilgrimage organised by the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), bringing staff, volunteers, friends and benefactors from dozens of countries together in Rome.
The pilgrimage took place from 7 to 10 May, and included moments of prayer, such as Masses and the recitation of the rosary, but also conferences, testimonies about ACN’s projects and the poor and persecuted Church given by people living in different parts of the world, as well as moments of relaxation and fun. The participants also had the opportunity of passing through the Holy Door in St Peter’s Basilica, which was a crowning moment of the Jubilee.
The highlight of the pilgrimage had originally meant to be an audience with Pope Francis but instead ended up being the historic opportunity to witness, in St Peter’s Square, the election and presentation of Pope Leo XIV, and to receive at close distance his Urbi et Orbi blessing.
“It was an extraordinary pilgrimage in the true sense of the word. We had the opportunity, right at the end of the opening Mass of the pilgrimage, on Thursday evening, to hear the announcement of the ‘Habemus Papam’,” said Marco Mencaglia, project director at ACN International, describing it as a “moment of grace, which we will all remember and carry in our hearts every time we see Leo XIV. Then, the next morning, 9 May, we passed through the Holy Door of the Vatican Basilica and for all of us pilgrims, it was a moment of great emotion, in the light of this joy received the day before.”
ACN benefactors present in Rome also had the opportunity to get to know the president of the international foundation, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, who at 80 years old did not take part in the conclave.
The cardinal encouraged them to remember that the Lord’s passion is not a finished event but continues in many parts of the world today. “Where is Jesus in agony today? Certainly, in countless places and situations. Jesus is nailed to the cross by all these numerous circumstances and urgent needs for evangelisation and suffering, toward which the Church leans. The nails are injustices, wounds, discriminations, intolerance, deprivation of freedom, destruction, and acts of violence inflicted upon many of our brothers and sisters. Jesus cannot come down from the cross unless we remove these nails… And even if we cannot remove them all at once or everywhere, we must do all that we can to raise awareness of these situations and, in any case, begin by removing these nails from our own hearts.”
“In the face of certain dramatic situations, some may ask, ‘God, where are you? Why don’t you do something?’ To such a heartbreaking question, there is indeed an answer, which challenges our conscience: ‘Of course I have done something. I created you!’” the cardinal exhorted in his opening speech to the pilgrims.
On Saturday, 10 May, during the homily of the closing Mass in the basilica of Saint Mary Major, Cardinal Piacenza summed up the mission of Aid to the Church in Need: “to assist Christ in His work of salvation, to help Him be known and loved, to help Christ save humanity by supporting the life of the Church, especially where she faces the greatest difficulties. We could describe the work entrusted to us, by grace, as a fruitful collaboration in building up the Church, a task indispensable for building up the world.”
The pilgrimage to Rome was an opportunity for ACN to show its benefactors and friends that this mission is carried out in a spirit of deep communion, which links the faithful from wealthy and privileged countries to those who suffer from poverty, neglect or persecution, and that St Peter, be he under the guise of Francis or of Leo XIV, is the visible sign of that unity among the whole Church. Testimonies by victims from persecution in countries such as Ukraine, Burkina Faso, Lebanon and Syria helped drive this message home.
This point was underscored by Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in his homily on 8 May, in the Basilica of St John Lateran. “It is by grace that we are the ones who are in a position to give and to assist. It could so easily have been the opposite. We could easily be the ones waiting for assistance. We could have been the ones forced to beg. Let us always be thankful.”
The archbishop reminded the pilgrims that “at the heart of our gathering and of our prayer today is the urgent reminder of one of the most essential aspects of our Christian identity: our call to serve the poor and those in need. This spiritual and practical mission that Christ gave us is not a suggestion, an optional extra. Rather it has been at the very core of the Gospel message for two millennia and forms an integral and practical expression of Christ’s commandment to love. It is, without exaggeration, an effective barometer and measure of how we love our neighbour.”
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