Thousands of people gathered at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin, for a Mass celebrating the Jubilee Year of Hope on July 20.
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion was designated as a "Jubilee Pilgrimage Site" for the Jubilee Year of Hope. Mass was celebrated by Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay.
Our Lady of Champion is the name given to the Marian apparition that took place at the site in 1859. It is the first, and so far, only, Marian apparition in the United States to have been approved by the Catholic Church.
"Many pilgrims that day had wanted to come to the Shrine for a while," Fr. Nathanael Mudd, CPM, told Aleteia after the procession. "When they found out about the Jubilee Mass for the Year of Hope, they decided to make that the center of their trip to visit the site of Our Lady's apparition."
The pilgrims, said Mudd, were full of "anticipation and hope," and there was a "wonderful atmosphere of gratitude and peace" at the Shrine.
Mudd, a member of the Fathers of Mercy, was able to carry the Mission Cross during part of the pilgrimage, something he told Aleteia was a "huge blessing."
"I thought a lot about the faith of those who attended the early missions, whose dates are inscribed on the cross, and how we still have that faith today," he said.
"I was also thinking of carrying the cross in reparation for sins, in particular, praying in preparation for the sins of priests," said Mudd.
Each of the pilgrims had their own reasons for coming to the Shrine, said Mudd, but many were looking for healing, or "even asking for hope in their despair."
"I think a lot of people have found that at the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with an assurance that she will hear and intercede for them, maybe sooner than later."
"The great thing is, the fact that they made the effort to make a pilgrimage here already speaks to a mustard seed-sized hope which God has given them, in that they hope to receive more here," he said.
