By M L Satyan
Coimbatore, March 18, 2025: These days, one of the “widely publicised information” and “vigorously promoted events” in the Catholic parishes and dioceses is “pilgrimage.” Usually, people undertake special penitential pilgrimages during the Lenten season.
Now, being the Jubilee Year, the number of pilgrimages has increased. The Catholic Church is promoting pilgrimages at various levels – parish, diocese, state, national and international.
Here is the content of the WhatsApp message that I received. It starts with the headline: “Calcutta Archdiocese launches Pilgrim’s Passport to guide Jubilee Pilgrims, Kolkata, March 16, 2025”. The main content is: “The Archdiocese of Calcutta has introduced a “Pilgrim’s Passport,” a digital booklet designed to assist pilgrims visiting the four designated Jubilee Pilgrimage sites within its jurisdiction.
The booklet aims to provide essential information to pilgrims, guiding them on how to prepare and fully experience the Jubilee, including the process of obtaining a Jubilee indulgence.
Pilgrimages to the designated jubilee sites – Kolkata’s Cathedral of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary; the Basilica of the Holy Rosary in Bandel; St. Paul the Apostle Church in Kamar Chowki; and Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Barasat – are already underway. Various parishes have begun organising pilgrimages to these sites.
As part of the Jubilee celebrations, the archdiocese has also introduced posters with unique QR codes at each pilgrimage site. Pilgrims can scan these codes to be counted in the official Jubilee Pilgrim tally and also provide feedback on their experience. This initiative allows the archdiocese to monitor participation and gather valuable insights on the spiritual engagement of pilgrims.”
The Diocese of Coimbatore has designated five churches within the diocese for the jubilee pilgrimage. In every parish, announcements are made about this and the people are encouraged to visit these churches, pray, make confession and obtain the jubilee indulgences.
In addition, parish priests of Coimbatore diocese are announcing pilgrimages to some famous churches in Tamil Nadu. The cost of each pilgrimage ranges from one to five thousand rupees per person. The cost includes bus travel, food and accommodation. Some parishes are also undertaking ‘padayatra’ to certain churches.
In every religion we find certain unwanted and non-essential ceremonies, rituals and practices that have been introduced by religious leaders for their selfish gains. One such practice is “pilgrimage”. These religious leaders brainwash the simple people to undertake pilgrimages to religious centres to obtain more ‘blessings’ and ‘graces’ from God.
One famous charismatic movement priest Fr. CJ Sebastian during one of his sermons in Dharamtala church said, ‘To gain holiness one does not need to visit places of pilgrimage. Holiness is in the heart.” How many priests can make such statements?
People are never or rarely taught that they could lead a meaningful life and obtain God’s blessings without undertaking any pilgrimage. The religious leaders keep propagating the need for pilgrimages and adopt various strategies to maintain such systems. Through this process the people are made to become “God-fearing” and not “God-loving”.
Millions of Christians undertake pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It is noted that for every group of 30 to 50 pilgrims one priest gets a free travel (with free board and lodge). Ultimately, who gets material/financial benefits? It is the priests, travel agents/brokers, the religious authorities of every pilgrimage centre and business people who run commercial establishments located there.
In the in-land pilgrimage to a place like Vailankanni, for example, the financial benefit goes to the religious authorities, hotels/restaurants, shops and travel agencies. Everyone involved in this tourism industry gets the benefit. Today this industry has become profit-yielding and it thrives.
When it comes to safety measures, it is very disappointing to note that none of the pilgrim centre has paid sufficient attention to it. I wish to substantiate this with a few examples. The tsunami on December 26, 2004, killed many outstation pilgrims as well as local people at Vailankanni. Did any safety measure exist then? No. Even after such a disaster, nothing substantial has been done to safeguard the pilgrims in case of another cyclone or tsunami.
Recently I watched a video in the YouTube that the beach-side restaurants at Vailankanni were selling rotten fish with worms inside. It has also been reported that small vendors sell unhygienic food/snacks/tiffin items. Many pilgrims eat such food and become prone to develop various health problems. Another health hazard is the dirty beach.
Neither the church authorities nor the local government administration is bothered about the sale of contaminated food at Vailankanni. No strict measures are introduced to ban adulterated food or clean the beach. The church administration seems to be happy that people come there to “pray, pay and obey”.
I do not deny the fact that there are pilgrims (may be 20 to 30 percent) who make real sacrifices and undertake visits to pilgrim centres for their spiritual growth. The other 70 to 80 percent pilgrims undertake pilgrimage not as a spiritual exercise but as an “obligation” or “excursion” or “picnic” or “holiday camp”.
Another eye-opener is that very little positive change (rather no change) is found in the lives of the pilgrims after they undertake regular and costly pilgrimages. I have seen many such pilgrims whose families are broken and do not maintain healthy relationship with their relatives, friends and neighbours. The same case is with priests and nuns. Regular ritualistic pilgrimages and retreats rarely reduce the caste-based divisions and mend the broken relationships among themselves.
It is time for us to introspect by asking ourselves:
• What is the need for a pilgrimage?
• Do we undertake a pilgrimage under an obligation or willingly?
• Does the pilgrimage really help us to grow spiritually?
• Do our pilgrimages strengthen our interpersonal relationships?
• As responsible citizens, do we demand safety measures/disaster preparedness from the management of the pilgrim centres?
• Does a pilgrimage help us to become more humane, see God in the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, homeless, prisoners and serve them?
• When are we going to stop undertaking “God-searching/grace-hunting” pilgrimages?
• Should we not learn to find God who lives within us and in our midst?
(The author is an NGO Consultant, trainer and a freelance journalist. He can be contacted at: mlsatyan55@gmail.com)