KCP - Catholic Diocese of Broome

The tradition of pilgrimage is an ancient one in the life of the Church. Pilgrims have travelled to the Holy Land from the earliest
That special place of pilgrimage, Lourdes, in the South of France, is one special holy place that the Kimberley Pilgrims will be visiting. It is of course, famous for being the place where Our Lady appeared to a young country girl, Bernadette. St Bernadette’s experience of being in the presence of Our Lady near to a small stream in the bush has turned Lourdes into a centre of healing and prayer. Numerous miracles have been recorded as people are blessed with the Holy Water. For Kimberley pilgrims this prayer will be that their faith in the Lord as Savier will deepen and grow.

(more on the pilgrimage next month – visit the pilgrimage website www.worldyouthday.com.au).

The following message was sent from Fr Dan Benedetti, MGL who is the Coordinator for the World Youth Day pilgrimage that our Kimberley youth will be part of in August this year.

It was a great experience crossing the border from the Northern Territory and visiting the Kimberley. We are expecting over 2000 Aussies to travel to Cologne to join about 800,000 young people for World Youth Day (WYD). For the first time the Dioceses of Darwin and Broome and NATSICC will travel together as a group to WYD.
We will have the blessing of going to Lourdes, Paris, Luxembourg and then onto Cologne. We will visit amazing places and meet young people from all over the world. There will be music, drama, sharing stories and Mass with the new Pope, Benedict XVI. It is an opportunity for all of us to have a great faith experience and deepen our love for the Church worldwide.
Part of my preparation as the group Co-ordinator was to meet with Bishop Christopher Saunders, priests, religious and members of the different parishes and communities in the Diocese of Broome which was been a real gift for me. A big thank you to all those who did so much to make my trip possible and enjoyable. I look forward to welcoming all the Broome/Kimberley representatives to Darwin before we depart. We will have a special commissioning Mass at the Cathedral on Sunday 7th August before we depart from Darwin. We are hoping Bishop Ted Collins will be there but he is still recovering from heart surgery in Sydney.
Please pray for him. God bless you all.
Fr Dan