EIM 2022 – Fátima-Santiago Pilgrimage
From 26 September to 1 October – World Day of the Elderly – we are preparing to celebrate, from Fatima, Portugal, to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, the first International Meeting of the Elderly, organized by the Permanent Commission of Vida Ascendente in Spain, in collaboration with the Dicastery of the Laity, Family and Life and the Spanish Episcopal Conference.
The long pandemic has highlighted both our smallness and the need we have to be in relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters.
Many have gone to the Father, many have suffered in their bodies from the disease, many have felt alone, abandoned, rejected in a world where too often the strong forget the weak.
In this long Jubilee Year of Compostela, we do not want to miss the opportunity to continue to bless the providential God who cares for his most vulnerable children and to continue to shout to those who want to hear us that the elderly are not a problem, but the opportunity to continue to implement the "revolution of tenderness" of which Pope Francis speaks to us so much.
In the continuity of the Day of Grandparents and Elders, with this International Meeting of the Elderly, we propose to:
1. Raise a grateful prayer to God who has not left us by His hand during this time of trial.
2. Make visible so many elderly people who have suffered and continue to suffer from loneliness, abandonment by their own and rejection by a society where hedonistic individualism is becoming stronger and stronger.
3. Witness to the silent presence of so many elderly people who, despite their weaknesses, continue to bring experience, enthusiasm and commitment in the Church and in society, to which we still have much to contribute.
To achieve these goals, on September 26 and 27, 2022, we will gather, from our different dioceses, in Fatima, where we will place at Mary's feet our gratitude and our pilgrimage path, which is a faithful reflection of the march of our existence as elders, participating in the Eucharist and the Rosary of torches.
Arriving in Santiago de Compostela on the 28th we will have, from September 29 to October 1st, several special moments: the workshops on "the elderly, transmitters of faith in the family", "the elderly, agents of the new evangelization", "the elderly and the pandemic of loneliness", and "the elderly in residences, challenges and opportunities". These workshops will be led by the bishops and those responsible for the lay apostolate, family and life of the Spanish Episcopal Conference and the director of the Department of Pastoral Care of the Elderly of the Dicastery for the Laity of the Holy See.
Likewise, we will celebrate a vigil of thanksgiving, presided over by the Nuncio of His Holiness in Spain, Archbishop Bernardito Aúza, and we will conclude with the pilgrim's Mass in the Cathedral of Santiago, International Day of the Elderly, presided over by the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Archbishop Julián Barrio.
We share the link of the video message (in Spanish) of the President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Card. Juan José Omella, encouraging participation in this gathering.
Father Ignacio Figueroa