Over 300 pilgrims walk to Our Lady of Good Hope Church for Jubilee year
Hundreds of local pilgrims from the Neocatechumenal Way, a charism within the Catholic church, walked from the historic Green Point Lighthouse to the Our Lady of Good Hope Church, in Sea Point, for a Jubilee pilgrimage on Sunday, November 16.
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More than 300 local pilgrims from the Neocatechumenal Way, a charism within the Catholic Church, walked from the historic Green Point Lighthouse to the Our Lady of Good Hope Church in Sea Point for a Jubilee pilgrimage on Sunday, November 16.
The Jubilee year is a special year of grace designated by the church that occurs every 25 years.
The pilgrims, from several different Catholic parishes in Cape Town, hiked from Green Point Lighthouse - singing and praying along the way, passing through the jubilee door, Holy Door, at the church, on Beach Road, to celebrate mass together.
Pilgrims in Our Lady of Good Hope Church, in Sea Point.
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St Mary's Cathedral in Roeland Street, Cape Town, was the only designated Holy Door for the jubilee year, but it has been closed since October for roof restoration work.
By a special decree, Cardinal Stephen Brislin, the archbishop of Johannesburg and former archbishop of Cape Town, nominated the Sea Point parish as a pilgrimage church for the remainder of the Jubilee year.
The pilgrims from the Neocatechumenal Way were the first to make use of the new holy door on Sunday and were welcomed by the parish priest, Father Zane Goodwin, who gave them a brief history of the church, which is one of the oldest in Cape Town.
Pilgrims congregate at Green Point Lighthouse.
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The Apostolic Nuncio for South Africa, Archbishop Henryk Jagodziński, said in a letter to the pilgrims: “I was very glad to hear about your Jubilee procession in the heart of Cape Town. Our Christian faith has a missionary dimension at its core. What we have experienced and continue to experience on our journey through life, we can pass on and make visible in the society of today, that is the Mercy of an ever-loving God, manifested in Jesus Christ.”
Dino Furgione, head of the Neocatechumenal Way Southern Africa, told the participants: “Christ, who is the head, was waiting for us here to be reconciled with his body, wounded by many sins. Courage! The Lord asks you to give him the burden of your sins because he alone can repay them with his love and mercy.”