Walsingham holds the first Grandparents Pilgrimage

Catherine Wiley was visiting the shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in England on Our Lady’s birthday in 2002. As she prayed before a statue of Our Lady, she wondered how she could bring some birthday joy as a gift to the Mother of Our Lord.

She thought of St Anne and St Joachim, parents of our Blessed Mother and grandparents of Jesus, and the idea of honoring Our Lady’s parents by supporting grandparents in their role of spiritually guiding their children came to mind.

As a grandmother herself, she knew many grandparents today suffer over their grandchildren being raised without the faith, or without proper catechesis. Many feel helpless and don’t know what to do to try to guide their grandchildren to the beauty of our faith and the Sacraments.

Familiar with pilgrimages to the shrine at Walsingham, Catherine proposed the idea of a pilgrimage especially for grandparents, to be held on September 8th, Our Lady’s birthday. That first pilgrimage for grandparents in 2003 was a beautiful start to what is now an international ministry, with a Mass for all the grandchildren represented by their grandparents that day.

An annual Grandparents Pilgrimage is now held at Our Lady of Knock, Ireland. Before long, grandparents were telling Wiley that they felt they needed something more than just an annual day of prayer. She was receiving calls from heartbroken grandparents who knew how crucial faith in God is, and wanted it so much for their grandchildren. They wanted support, encouragement, guidance with interceding for their grandchildren and help in leading them to heaven. So in 2009 Cathy decided to form an association.

She likes to say the Catholic Grandparents Association was “conceived in Walsingham, and born in Knock!” The Mission and Ministry of the Catholic Grandparents Association (CGA) is to “pass on our faith and keep prayer at the heart of family life.”

She says that these grandparents are passionate about their most important vocation, with a desire to leave their grandchildren a legacy of the gift of faith, which they received from their own parents and grandparents.

Patty Knap, September 2019 (excerpt), for Aleteia