In Ivory Coast, the after-pandemic with Mary!

Inaugurated on December 12, 2015, the 7.5 acre Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy in San Pedro, Ivory Cost (Africa), ranks fourth among Ivory Coast’s Marian shrines, after those of Abidjan, Grand-Bassam and Issia. This new church responds to a need to welcome pilgrims from all over the diocese.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy promotes a Catholic Marian spirituality around the sacraments and special Marian devotions. It offers Masses, confessions, weddings, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, stations of the Cross, spiritual direction, family counseling, spiritual retreats, and all-night devotions called "the 1,000 meditated Hail Marys.

"Throughout the morning, visitors file up the stairs to the main statue of the Virgin Mary. They pray in front of her for a few minutes, leave candles, flowers, or money, before climbing down again. We talked to Elizabeth, a young mother in her 30s carrying a baby on her back, who said: "Whenever I can, I come here to pray. Our Lady always listens to us and consoles us in our trials."  

"The Virgin of Mercy never ceases to welcome her children who are afflicted by spiritual, economic, physical, socio-professional and moral misery," says Father Dossou, rector of the shrine. "The Virgin brings to us the Father of Mercy’s responses to all His children crushed by their human misery.

"With the coronavirus pandemic, the activities of the shrine were greatly reduced for a number of weeks, but have now resumed.

Adapted from an article by Lucie Sarr La Croix