Julio and Katherine Chavez weren’t quite sure what to expect when they joined more than 30 other Catholics from the diocese on a rainy morning in Coachella to begin a 31-mile walk to the Salton Sea. It was their first experience of pilgrimage.
But when the two-day journey had drawn to a close, the couple, parishioners of St. Joseph the Worker parish in Loma Linda, called it a “once in lifetime experience….”
The Jubilee Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation, which took place Nov. 15-16, was a joint endeavor of the dioceses of San Bernardino and San Diego, meant to reflect the Jubilee Year theme of pilgrimage while inviting walkers to contemplate God’s handiwork in the surrounding desert landscape. The San Bernardino pilgrims walked south from Coachella while the San Diego group walked north from El Centro.
The two pilgrim groups met on Sunday in the small community of Desert Shores, where they walked to the shore of the Salton Sea for a final prayer and blessing of the waters. They then attended Mass together at nearby Christ the King Mission Church with Bishop Emeritus Gerald Barnes as the chief celebrant.
The Salton Sea as the destination point of the two pilgrimages was symbolically chosen. A 318-square mile saltwater lake that straddles the two dioceses, it has been described in its history as both a natural wonder and, in recent decades, one of California’s worst ecological disasters. On the first day of the San Bernardino walk, pilgrims stopped for lunch at El Senior de Misericordia Mission in Coachella and heard a talk from Castulo Estrada, vice president of the Salton Sea Authority board of directors. Estrada shared the unique environmental challenges associated with the Salton Sea and proposed plans to restore it.
Despite intermittent rains, the San Bernardino pilgrims covered 15 miles (11 on foot) the first day of the walk, which ended in Mecca. They visited and prayed at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Guadalupe church, a Jubilee Pilgrimage site of the diocese. Later, they enjoyed a guided “star talk” with Jesuit scholastic Rob Lorenz, SJ, an outreach officer with the Vatican Observatory. The pilgrims were hosted for the night at the Galilee Center, a Catholic-affiliated shelter for migrants and local farmworkers.
The next day, when pilgrims from both dioceses gathered at the shore of the Salton Sea, they laid down small stones that they had been encouraged to carry with them for their entire walk, symbolizing both the hope and the burden of the journey, and the environmental burdens associated with the Salton Sea….
The Diocese of San Diego began planning their pilgrimage to the Salton Sea last summer as a way to mark the Jubilee Year while highlighting environmental challenges that call for an intentional response from the Catholic faithful.
The Creation Care ministry of the Diocese of San Diego, led by Christina Bagaglio Slentz, invited the Diocese of San Bernardino to share in the pilgrimage by walking south from the eastern Coachella Valley….
During his homily at the closing Mass, Father Emmet Farrel, a retired priest of the Diocese of San Diego, helped put the many blessings of the pilgrimage in perspective. Fr. Farrel, a key figure in the foundation of Creation Care ministry in his diocese, had joined the San Diego pilgrims on their walk.
In addition to the hosting parishes, missions and the Galilee Center, the Knights of Columbus, Council #3847, under the leadership of Grand Knight Juan De Lara generously supported the pilgrimage by providing all meals, and drove the route with portable toilets for pilgrims.
From the Inland Catholic Byte
What a waste of time, and a total capitulation of fake catholicism to the worldly concerns of the leftist worldview. All that was missing in the glowing article was how “diverse” the group was.
An endeavor worthy of the Unitarian Church. Why don’t they join up?
It’s not that this project is unworthy. But, how high a priority is this for those dioceses?
The Salton Sea was created by an illegal breach of a Colorado River canal in 1905. It’s no more a natural body of water than Stow Lake in GG Park. Would you carry stones to Stow Lake?
After I read the headline, I thought that a group of people took some stones from a cave that was dedicated to Saint Michael and brought them to a holy place that is dedicated to spiritual warfare. After I read the article, I was sorely disappointed.
Some sellers engrave words such as hope, peace, love or Jesus, on rocks and sell them for a prayer or garden setting. Many children love to collect pretty rocks. I always did, especially fools gold. They can remind us of the beauty of nature which God created. We have to be careful where we buy or get them as some have occult sayings on them and are sold by occultists. I bought from such people unknowingly and sprinkled them with holy water just in case. Any jewelry with pagan engravings I recycled in recycle bins.. Some symbols are common to Christianity AND paganism. Best to have those blessed or exorcised by a priest if one keeps them.
Why would anyone want to join this kind of church, dedicate his life to this way of living? It is empty. Why not proclaim the Incarnation of the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, who took flesh by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary, who takes away our sins and who offers us life as sons and daughters of God through baptism, eternal life through the Eucharist, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to make us like Himself so that we walk with Him in faith and morals in this life, and that He would give us new and resurrected bodies to live with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever in heaven. Now that is something worth marching for, not just 31 miles, but a whole lifetime of walking with the Son of God who loves us,
Fr. Richard – You make far too much sense.
“Creation Care Ministry” is code for “Parish Democrat Club”.
While i was an undergraduate at the university of Kansas i attended a Jesuit retreat and was shocked to be told we needs to find a stone and identify with as a way of getting closer to God… s tone that we could hol in the palm of our hands. As i met with the jesuit director, he was unhappy when i said that i loved Ignatius’ idea of contemplatives in action’ and that Jesus had come to form contemplatives. The new Jesuits had abandoned that by the 1970’s and wanted to do psychological navel-gazing spirituaility. The stones carried around like new age crystal at the Salton Sea pilgrimage sounds as if the stone -worship aka self- worship credo is still writ larger in their retreat format
Hilarious how we who want to conserve the earth have no problem gouging deeply into majestic beautiful mountains to get “stones” (gem stones, healing stones, metals, you name it) leaving scars behind and blaming the other guy for doing the same thing.. I do not buy Black Hill’s Gold as one Native tribe says those mountains are sacred to them. and it reminds me of the Psalmist who says, “I will look unto the hills from whence cometh my help; my help cometh from the Lord.” I have no trouble, although, buying other “comfort” pieces – Rosaries, Holy Land hand crosses and metal coins of saints. We all seem to have our arbitrary red lines that we will not cross. Silly, silly us.
They picked up rocks at the beginning and dropped off at the end, doesn’t seem that deep. San Diego’s article doesn’t even mention it. Based on the pictures they carried an icon of Mary to the Sea and mission church.