‘Lives have been changed’ for our pilgrims at World Youth Day (Video/ photos)

After hosting the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady of Fátima in the Archdiocese of Newark earlier this year, a group of young pilgrims from the archdiocese were able to spend time at the site in Portugal during Would Youth Day.  

In late April, Father Kevin Kilgore, pastor of St. Pius X Parish in Old Tappan, and Ricardo Casimiro, campus minister at Montclair State University, retrieved the pilgrim statue from the Shrine of Fátima in Portugal. After visiting about 20 parishes throughout the archdiocese for processions and Masses, Father Kilgore and Casimiro returned her to Portugal in mid-June. 

During the statue’s visit in the spring, Casimiro, who received the Shrine of Fátima’s Centennial Medal in 2017 for his commitment to Our Lady, said; “Her presence here reminds us that we’re never alone. Our Lady is always with us in our suffering and our moments of joy. So, visiting the statue is a chance to renew our faith and find hope for the future.” 

Both Kilgore and Casimiro were back in Portugal Aug. 1-9, this time with about 50 young adults for World Youth Day, spending many days in Fátima visiting the grotto where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three young shepherd children, Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia, in May 1917. They spent time with the original Our Lady statue commissioned in honor of the apparitions and prayed at the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity Fátima. The 43 pilgrims were there on scholarship thanks to the archdiocese and many fundraising efforts. 

“I attended World Youth Day 15 years ago when it was in Sydney. Someone paid for me. It was my goal to do the same for those who wanted to go this time from our archdiocese,” Father Kilgore said.  

Casimiro said the pilgrimage exceeded his expectations. Being with 1.5 million faithful was “very inspiring for us that do pastoral work,” he said.  

Although the group visited other Catholic pilgrimage locations, including the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte and the Shrine of Sameiro in the Braga region and Santiago Compostela in Spain, and attended the Mass with Pope Francis in Lisbon, the pilgrims spent most of their time dedicated to the mission in Fátima.  

During a day of service to others and prayer to Our Lady, the group took elders from their home, Lar Santa Beatriz da Silva, to spend the day in prayer at the Fátima shrine and chapel in “true experience of the gospel.” Wheeling some on stretchers or in wheelchairs, or supporting those using canes, the pilgrims took the elders for prayer at the site of the apparitions of 1917 and then a Mass at the Basilic of the Most Holy Trinity Fátima. 

Erica, from St. Joseph’s Parish in Jersey City, said accompanying the senior citizens to see the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima was “unforgettable because their smiles filled my heart with joy.” Wilmer Picharlo, also from St. Joseph’s, said that he felt he was living out the Gospel in helping the sick. 

Danielle Gherardi, parishioner of St. Joseph in Oradell, said the seniors had felt a longing to visit the shrine located practically in their backyard.  

“Through their stories, we heard that for 5, 10, and upwards of 15 years they hadn’t left the home. We were able to bring them to the shrine and see our Blessed Mother and bring them to the Mass. It was a special and unique experience to be able to do that for the community.”  

“Since the pandemic and some longer, they were unable to leave home to visit Our Lady, even though they lived really close,” Casimiro said. 

Father Kilgore held the umbrella over Sister Isabel to protect her from the hot Portuguese sun as the pilgrims wheeled her hospital bed to the shrine and into Mass.  

“She hadn’t left the home in six years,” Father Kilgore said. “Never before has a person in a hospital bed been wheeled into Mass at the Basilica.” 

Casimiro also gave a tour of the exhibition Rosarium at the Shrine of Fátima, and then they ended the day with fellowship with the elders. 

On Friday night at the Shrine of Fátima, the group attended the candlelight procession along with hundreds of thousands of other pilgrims and led the fourth Mystery of the Rosary — an emotional moment for all, Casimiro said. Matt Olivo, a parishioner of Old Tappan’s St. Pius X Parish, carried the processional cross. 

The group then went to bed under the stars, sprawled out on yoga mats and sleeping bags waiting for Pope Francis’ arrival on Saturday. 

“When Pope Francis arrived in Fátima and prayed in front of the statue of Our Lady, there was this great silence that united us with the Holy Father,” Casimiro said.  

Before 200,000 pilgrims, Pope Francis called for a new Marian devotional title — “Our Lady in a Hurry” — to describe how Mary hastens to care for all her children referring to this year’s World Youth Day theme of “Mary arose and went with haste” (Luke 1:39). 

There are many Marian invocations, Pope Francis told the crowd at the Shrine on Saturday, Aug. 5, but one that is not common and should be because it comes from the biblical account of the visitation when Mary sets off to see her cousin who also is pregnant. 

“It’s a loose translation, but where the Gospel says she set out ‘in haste,’ we would say she went out running, she went out running with that eagerness to be present,” the pope said. 

“‘Our Lady in a Hurry,’ do you like that?” Pope Francis asked his fellow pilgrims. “Let’s all say it together: ‘Our Lady in a Hurry.’ She hurries to be close to us. She hurries because she is a mother.” 

“Every time there is a problem, every time we invoke her, she doesn’t delay, she hurries,” the pope told the crowd. 

Afterward, the group stayed for Mass and helped with the umbrellas that were used for the distribution of Holy Communion to protect against the heat and sun. They then stayed for the vigil and spent one final night in Fátima. 

“It was a deep moment of encounter with Christ, a sea of youth willing to renew faith and stand for what we believe,” Casimiro said. “There were a lot of challenges that night, that made us reflect that we should meet people where they are as we do our ministry.” 

The group headed back to Lisbon to again spend time with Pope Francis at the Closing Mass of World Youth Day. They helped again with umbrellas during communion in which Casimiro was a Eucharistic minister.   

“That for me is a moment that I will treasure, seeing all these young adults with so much devotion and reverence to the Eucharist, seeing all these eyes seeking for Christ and the comfort they received,” he said, adding that Christ really touched their hearts. “You cannot be the same after this experience.”  

Father Kilgore said the group, from different ages, backgrounds, and points of view, “jelled” well together. The trip was “really rigorous” at times — hiking for miles, little sleep, and 100-degree days. The key was the group’s diversity, he said. The pilgrims came from all four counties, ranged in age from 19 to 34, and spoke six different languages.  

“It was a really beautiful group,” Father Kilgore said. “Lives have been changed. We look forward to the future, to evangelizing this generation, which has truly been transformed.”