Buenos Aires, Argentina, Oct 8, 2024 / 15:45 pm
“Mother, Under Your Gaze We Seek Unity” was the theme that brought together more than 2.3 million of the faithful this past weekend to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lujan in Argentina as part of the 50th Youth Pilgrimage.
Coming from the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, which organized the pilgrimage through the Popular Piety Commission, the pilgrims began to arrive in Luján during the day on Saturday under a radiant sun after walking more than 37 miles to the shrine and continued to pour in on Sunday.
On their way, they received the blessing of priests, support from volunteers, and inspiration from music groups from the different dioceses of western Buenos Aires.
Upon arriving at the basilica in Luján, they were able to attend different Masses. The main Mass of the day for the huge crowd of pilgrims was held at 7 a.m. and celebrated by the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge García Cuerva, who arrived on foot from St. Cajetan Shrine located in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Liniers.
In his homily, the prelate addressed a few words to the Virgin of Luján: “To say to you ‘mother’ unites us; there is the foundation to begin to build the national unity so longed for,” he said.
“Saying to you ‘mother,’ ‘mom,’ makes us children and brothers and sisters. That is how we came on pilgrimage. As a people, all so different, all so equal. We have traveled many kilometers, we have brought our intentions to Mary” in an experience “with others” and with “solidarity and joy.”
Citing the “youth of 1975,” protagonists of the first Youth Pilgrimage to Luján, he said: “In each step we have taken up to this point we have experienced what it is to be a people who walk together toward their ideal of freedom and justice. And that is why we came. It is because we young people are increasingly understanding that we are part of a people, the people of God in Latin America, whose heart is the humble and the workers.”
‘Mother, look at your weary people’
At the feet of the Virgin, the archbishop referred to the situation in Argentina, with so many children “trapped by drugs,” others sick, young people “distressed by not being able to realize their life projects,” and those who “cannot make ends meet to feed their families.”
“Mother, look at your weary people, look at your people who are making a great effort to hold on to hope, to shoulder the country and overcome the crisis that we have been going through for years,” he prayed. “Look at your pilgrim people, who come with all their intentions, with their wounds and hopes.”
A call to humility ‘to build bridges’
The archbishop then referred to the poverty index for the first half of 2024 in Argentina: “In the face of crises, the wise seek solutions, the mediocre seek those to blame. There are many mediocre people who, faced with the appalling and painful 52.9% index of poverty, began to look for those to blame,” he said.
“From the house of Mary, we ask you: Please unite behind two or three important issues for all Argentines. Let us ask for the humility to work with others, to create consensus and agreements, and to build bridges, because the bravest thing we can do is ask for help,” he urged.
“Let us not give up on being brothers and sisters, on seeking solutions together, on building a more just and fraternal homeland, on freeing ourselves from prejudices, hatred, and sterile confrontations, on continuing to entrust our lives to the Virgin of Luján,” he urged, assuring that she “encourages us to continue walking in life, weary, but not dejected, beaten, but with hope and without giving up.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
