“The Gospel is a joyful promise” was the motto of the two-day (10-11 July) 30th Pilgrimage of the Radio Maryja Family to Jasna Góra. It was a time of thanksgiving for 30 years of broadcasting of Radio Maryja and the evangelising ministry of Radio Maryja Family to God, the Church and Homeland. Pope Francis and the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, addressed words of greeting that have been presented to the pilgrims.
I remember and bless those who today in Poland participate in the pilgrimage of Radio Maryja to the Czestochowa sanctuary – said the Pope speaking after the Angelus prayer last Sunday, which he recited from the balcony of the Gemelli Clinic in Rome. Through the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Pope will also grant a special indulgence to the faithful who, for important reasons, could not come to Jasna Góra and have participated in the pilgrimage spiritually.
Fr. Tadeusz Rydzyk, C.Ss.R., director of Radio Maryja, thanked our Lady of Jasna Góra for being our Mother, that ‘due to this national Shrine, our Polish family is one, we have our identity, we have Christ’.
In his sermon during the Holy Mass celebrated at 11 a.m., which was the main point of the two-day celebrations, Archbishop Wacław Depo, the Chairman of the Council for Social Media at the Polish Bishops Conference, emphasised that there are too many reformers and purifiers of the truth and faith of the Church today. He said that the truth which God revealed to us did not make us prisoners and slaves of faith and morality, but on the contrary, it makes us free people endowed with the joyful promise of life beyond suffering and death’.
He stressed that we need to continue to acquire a maturity of faith that will be “a response to all kinds of crises and unrealistic expectations in understanding both the vocation to marital life, family life, and the priesthood or religious life.”
Fr. Janusz Sok C.Ss.R., the Provincial of the Warsaw Province, recalled the 50th priestly ordination anniversary of Fr. Rydzyk and thanked him for his ministry at the Radio Maryja Family.
For years, the Family of Radio Maryja annual pilgrimage has been one of the biggest pilgrimages to Jasna Góra, the biggest Marian sanctuary in Poland. This year tens of thousands of believers came on this pilgrimage.
internet sources: www.redemptor.pl, www.jasnagora.com
