WASHINGTON (CNS) — With pride and devotion, Asian and Pacific Island Catholic communities put their faith and culture on display May 5 as they carried a variety of colorful madonnas into Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to mark the 16th year of a pilgrimage that honors the Virgin Mary.
In the Filipino Catholic culture, she is venerated as Our Lady of Antipolo and Our Lady of Ina Poon Bato. In Bangladesh, she is known as Our Lady of Bandel. The Sri Lankan community venerates her as Our Lady of Lanka. One by one, each Marian image was carried to the altar surrounded by members of each community dressed in clothing honoring a different country, including Myanmar, China, Korea, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Philippines.
“The same mother appears in different ways all over the world,” said Henry Gomes, of the Washington area, who has participated in the pilgrimage since it began. “The faith brings us together and we are one in the body of Christ.”
The Asian and Pacific Catholic Network in collaboration with the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity for Asian and Pacific Island Affairs at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops hosted the event, which included a Mass with Bishop Oscar Solis of Salt Lake City, chairman of the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs, as the main celebrant.
Bishop Solis is the first U.S. bishop born in the Philippines. Sprinkling humor with important life lessons, he encouraged the congregation during his homily to look to Mary as the ultimate example of how to act when things seem to go wrong or don’t fit a person’s plans in life.
There will always be disruptions and when that happens it’s important to look at how the Mary put aside her life’s plans and trusted the path God set before her, he said.
Mary was a typical young woman who wanted a nice and normal life, but God disrupted her plan, Bishop Solis said. Though she was initially troubled, she ultimately put her trust in God, he said, and she should serve as an example of how to handle disruptions and unscripted developments.
“We become dysfunctional when things don’t go our way. Do we trust God? Do we believe God’s ways are not our ways?” he asked of the hundreds gathered for the daylong event that celebrates the faith and heritage of the country’s Asian and Pacific Island Catholic communities.
“Our gathering expresses the hope and confidence in the divine understanding that in the face of trials and adversity, we don’t have to fill our hearts with useless anxieties,” he said. “There is nothing to fear. Relax, chill out, because we have a compassionate God who is with us and will never abandon us. God is always in control.”
Mary, he said, is the “perfect icon of our faith,” and a model to teach us to be “totally open to the divine will” even when it’s hard to understand.
“Mary taught us what trust in God means,” he said. “Trust is a huge step to take, to believe that God doesn’t want to harm but to bless us.”
He thanked the various communities gathered for their unity.
“Living in our troubled world and polarized society, it is a tremendous blessing to see ourselves united in prayer and thanksgiving,” he said.
Rubiante Suandika, of McLean, Virginia, attending the pilgrimage for the third time, said that while the languages and cultures of the various Asian and Pacific Island communities are different, it was beautiful to see how faith helped put those differences aside. Unity is the product of faith, she said.
Suandika said attending the pilgrimage helped her also to reflect on Mary and the example she set as a mother, an example to help her in the good times but also in the more challenging times in life. She said she prays for her intercession to help her faithfully follow that example.
“I hope she blesses me with that,” she said.
Bishop Solis took time during the petitions to ask for prayers for Father Mark Anthony Ventura and Father Marcelito Paez, two priests murdered in the Philippines, and for priests persecuted around the world.
Father Ventura, 37, who was outspoken against mining, was killed on April 29, and Father Paez, 72, who was involved in human rights advocacy, was killed in December 2017. Both were gunned down.
