Des Plaines shrine welcomes national pilgrimage with special Mass

A few hundred members of the Catholic faithful gathered Thursday at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines for a special Mass held as part of a national pilgrimage.

Starting Wednesday and continuing through Sunday, the Archdiocese of Chicago is welcoming the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, a two-month walking journey across the U.S. led by clergy and a small group of young adults who will converge July 17, at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.

“The whole idea is to rekindle the faith of the community and call them out, to rekindle people's sense of hope,” said the Rev. Esequiel Sanchez, rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. “The message is faith through action, to take responsibility for what we can do and make wherever we live a better place.”

Sanchez said the pilgrims who traveled to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe arrived from Minnesota.

The Rev. Jesus Puentes was the celebrant for the noon Mass, and music was sung by a choir in both English and Spanish for the multicultural congregation gathered outdoors.