A coloured summer of faith

Does faith go on holiday? Yes, in the sense that faith can be lived even during summer months, during school holidays or holidays from work. Faith can also be “sought” in the summer, it can be rejuvenated with significant experiences. It can also take a rest in sites and circumstances that nurture a vision of faith. There are many proposals for all age groups. Follows an overview of some of the experiences that the Bishops’ Conferences in Europe are promoting in the coming weeks. Young people from Luxembourg to Thailand. On August 19 138 people will be leaving from Luxembourg with their archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich for a “pastoral visit” to northern Thailand, on the border with Myanmar. They will spend two weeks in a refugee camp of the Karen population, with whom they will share their daily lives: “We will eat, live and work with them. There will be no air-conditioned buses, nor four-star hotels or Wi-Fi connections”. The proposal – the youths explained – “is a time dedicated to new experiences”. “With this trip we are inviting you to lead a simple life. You will discover what’s important for your life, what guides you and what distracts you”, the organizers wrote in a brochure. “This trip is not for those who want everything to stay the way it was. This trip will change you”. Young people will dedicate part of their days to the finishing touches of a church that archbishop Hollerich will consecrate on August 31. The days will be marked by spiritual gatherings, but there will also be time for rest and for visiting the region. Pilgrimages of altar boys from northern countries. A cluster of nearly 50 thousand altar boys from 26 German dioceses, from the archdiocese of Vienna and from Latvia will convene in Rome on August 4. They will be accompanied by many German bishops in a pilgrimage titled “Free! And thus allowed to do good deeds”. On August 5 Pope Francis will receive the German altar boys during a celebrative and prayer meeting in St. Peter’s Square. During the rest of they stay, until August 8, they will take part in moments of prayer, sharing, visits and meetings with their peers across the city of Rome. Czech Republic, applauses to the family. The families of the Czech Republic are invited to take part in a national pilgrimage of the family in Zdár nad Sázavou (August 29-30) titled “We applaud the family”. The idea of a meeting for married couples and children in the dioceses of Brno, launched 10 years ago by bishop Vojtech Cikrle, has grown into the largest event of the kind in the Czech Republic. The 2014 Pilgrimage will be dedicated also to celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the UN International Day of Families, with reflections and debates on work and holiday, faith in the family, cross-generational solidarity, the family and the community. Ecumenical Cricket for solidarity. The players of an ecumenical cricket game due to be held in September will have to train during the summer. The Saint Peter team will play against its Anglican antagonists. The match was planned during the visit to Rome of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in mid June. The purpose of the game is to collect funds in support of the “Global Freedom Network”, an ecumenical, interreligious initiative against slavery and human trafficking. The St. Peter’s team includes students in seminaries and Pontifical Roman Colleges, most of whom are from India. Norway remembers Saint Olav. Indeed, the Bishops’ Conferences offer a wide range of proposals: from Portugal to Poland, from Romania to the British islands, a plethora of initiatives for young people, volunteering and pilgrimages, spiritual retreats in monasteries, visits to cathedrals and other holy sites. For example, in the year marking celebrations for the 1000 years since the conversion and baptism of Saint Olav, the “eternal King of Norway”, martyr and patron Saint of the Nordic Country, the Catholic Church offers a busy program which in the last week of July includes a pilgrimage with various stops along the sites that preserve traces of Olav’s passage such as Stiklestad, where the king was martyred during a battle on July 29 1030. France, hand extended towards the Holy Land. 2200 French students should have left on July 23rd for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, with their chaplains and 21 bishops. But on July 15 it was decided to cancel the visit “owing to the worsening and the unstable developments of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. The initiative had been decided by the Plenary Assembly of bishops in November 2012. Now organizers are considering a national prayer gathering for peace in France at the end of July and to “send a small delegation to Jerusalem as a sign of gratitude and support to interlocutors and to the communities that were preparing to welcome the French pilgrims”.