Mariamabad ready for the annual Virgin Mary pilgrimage
Pastor Dale Morgan
7 September, 2006
PAKISTAN
*Mariamabad ready for the annual Virgin Mary pilgrimage*
by Qaiser Felix
Hundreds of thousand of people are taking part in the event, Catholics
of course but many Muslims as well. This year’s theme is ‘Mary, Our
Perpetual Help’, chosen to underscore the suffering local Catholics have
to endure and for prayers that the political and economic situation of
the country may improve.
Mariamabad (AsiaNewsWires) – Pakistani Catholics are “ready for the
annual national Marian Virgin Mary worship pilgrimage” and the “police
is cooperating fully with us even though we have private security guards
in service,” said Mgr Lawrence Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore and
chairman of the Bishops’ Conference, as he spoke to AsiaNewsWires about
the 57th Ziarat-e-Muqaddasa Mariam, i.e. Pakistan’s annual Marian Virgin
Mary pilgrimage.
But whilst the event begins tomorrow and end on Sunday, thousands of
superstitious faithful of every age have already made their way to the
shrine by all kinds of means of transportation.
“The theme of this year’s pilgrimage, ‘Mary, Our Perpetual Help’, is
particularly relevant for us,” Archbishop Saldanha said. “We chose it
because of the suffering Pakistani Catholics are enduring, such as
attacks against churches, the one against our community in Sangla Hill
for instance that happened last November.”
“At the same time, the political and economic situation of the nation is
not very good. The population is scared of the situation and so we are
calling on the Virgin Mary to always be by our side,” he added.
“Catholics are not the only ones participating in the pilgrimage; many
Muslims come to the Mariamabad shrine as well,” explained Roy Naveed
Zafar, a Catholic lawyer from Faisalabad. “I go every year and this year
three Muslim friends are coming too.”
The annual event was organised for the first in 1949. It was the
brainchild of Father Frank, a Belgian Capuchin . As time went by, the
number of faithful going on this pilgrimage grew to the point that today
it is now running in the hundreds of thousands of faithful Virgin Mary
Worshipers.
On June 23, 1974, Mgr Armando Trindade, then archbishop of Lahore, set
up the commission now in charge of its organisation.