Colorfully dressed members of almost 30 communities shared traditional music, dance and prayer from their respective countries as part of the 21st Annual Asian and Pacific Island Catholics Marian Pilgrimage to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., on May 4.
The event included Catholics from Washington-area parishes and members of different parishes and communities from New Jersey, Baltimore, North Carolina, Philadelphia, and Richmond, Virginia.
Asian and Pacific Island Catholics participating in the pilgrimage included representatives of the Bangla, Burmese, Cambodian, Chamorro, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Lebanese, Montagnard, Pakistani, Samoan, Sri Lankan, Thai and Vietnamese communities.
The event was sponsored by the Asian and Pacific Catholic Network in collaboration with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church.
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, was the principal celebrant and homilist for the Mass. Concelebrants included Msgr. Vito Buonanno, Father Paul Tun Khine, Father Manoj Mammen, Father Moonseong (Matthew) Park, Father Chris Arockiaraj, PSS, Father Salai Rober Zaw Lwin, Father David Michael, and Father Joseph Haibing Shen.
Msgr. Buonanno, the associate rector and director of pilgrimages at the basilica, in an interview spoke on the importance of ethnic pilgrimages.
“Each ethnic group does a devotional singing, [playing] instruments, [and] dancing, all in honor of the devotion to Mary. And it’s not only colorful, but as you can hear, it’s energetic, it’s lively, and it just puts us in the right disposition to pray, which would be the conclusion of the day with liturgy,” Msgr. Buonanno said.
Msgr. Buonanno explained why he believes pilgrimages are an important part of the Catholic faith practice that can be traced back to the Old Testament.
“It gathers people together in a cause, the cause is the expression of our faith. It reminds us all that many times, pilgrimages are not travel moments. They’re what we would call moments of great sacrifice,” he said. “The way you come here, the time you have to get up, the distance you have to travel, sometimes the inconvenience of traveling. But yet we do it together as a people. It’s this one moment of coming to the destination, which is this magnificent, national premier Marian shrine of our country.”
The event began with members of St. Andrew Kim Korean Catholic Church in Olney, Maryland, playing traditional Korean drums. Following the processional hymns was the call to prayer, which included sacred songs and movements. Dancers performed in the basilica’s sanctuary from Our Lady of Vietnam Catholic Church in Silver Spring, Maryland; the Chinese Catholic Community from New Jersey; the Montagnard Catholic Community from North Carolina; and the Burmese Catholic Community from Washington, D.C.
Carolyn Ng, the vice president of the Asian and Pacific Network and a catechetical leader with Our Lady of China Pastoral Mission, in an interview said the event combines both Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and the month of Mary, which are both celebrated in May. The basilica served as an appropriate location as it is a shrine to Mary.
Ng, who grew up in Hong Kong, said not many people recognize the Asian population that makes up the Catholic community.
Vietnam currently has a population of more than 100 million. According to a 2019 census, 14 percent are “religious adherents,” of which 45 percent are Roman Catholics. According to the Pew Research Center, about eight in 10 people in the Philippines are Catholic.
Ng shared what she hopes attendees take from the day.
“That they will be proud of their traditions, their cultural heritage, and share the common faith, the one faith in Jesus Christ, and our devotion to the Blessed Mother,” Ng said.
“Every part is unique to me. Many travel from afar…and some of them will be leading the rosary in their native languages, and others will be performing a sacred dance in devotion to the Blessed Mother or to worship God. The finale, the climax of course, is the Eucharist in the Mass,” Ng said.
Following the crowning of Mary by representatives from the Indonesian Catholic Community based in Washington, D.C., participants led the praying of mysteries of the rosary in their native languages, including the Goan community from India praying in Konkani, members of the Syro-Malankara Eastern Catholic Rite praying in Malayalam, and the Vietnamese Catholic Community praying in Vietnamese.
Siblings John Sharaf and Kathleen Sharaf attended the day on behalf of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The Sharafs’ family is from Pakistan, and the two shared why attending the pilgrimage, something they have done with their parents and parish since they were children, was important to them.
“Our parents are very active, my father and my mother helped found the Pakistani Catholic Church (in our area), to find a priest and get a Mass going, and bring people together over 24 years ago,” Kathleen Sharaf said. “It’s just the four of us [attending the pilgrimage], but our old priest used to rent Greyhound coach buses to bring people down.”
They attend Mass in English at St. Helena Catholic Church and a Pakistani service at St. William Roman Catholic Church. St. William Church has a Facebook group for its Pakistani community with more than 1,000 members.
Mass for the Marian pilgrimage began following the rosary.
During his homily, Cardinal Pierre shared news from the Holy See about Pope Francis’s upcoming trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, and Singapore in early September.
“Your faith shows the fruit of the missionary activity, which has been essential to the Church’s identity from the very beginning. St. Paul was the great missionary of the first Christian generation. Always, he was seeking new paths on which to advance the Gospel. In today’s passage, he reached Derbe and Lystra, drawing more people to the mission,” Cardinal Pierre said.
The cardinal explained the meaning of that day’s responsorial psalm from Psalm 100, “Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.”
“When we praise God together, as people from different parts of the world, from different language groups, and from different ethnic backgrounds, that prayer of praise becomes all the greater. It is a living testimony to the harmony and diversity which strengthens and makes more beautiful the Body of Christ,” Cardinal Pierre said.
He continued saying how crucial joy is in spreading the faith and for people in the Church to be aware that God is always present.
“Joy is essential to the Good News. And rejoice we must, because in joy we must find our strength. Strength is needed to be Catholic in this world. As Jesus said to his disciples, he was hated by some in this world; and if that is the case, then so will it be for us,” he said. “Our proclamation of God’s truth and love – our choice to live according to the ‘style of God’ – will always elicit opposition from those whose hearts remain hardened against the message of the Cross. We will, in other words, be ‘persecuted’ for the sake of Jesus.”
Following the Mass, there was a reception for attendees to gather and share about the pilgrimage.
