Father Robert Hughes may have been to the Holy Land 12 times, but he’s the first to admit he experiences something new every time he visits.
“Seeing the Holy Land through the eyes of people who are visiting for the first time, that always brings me back to the first time I traveled there,” said Father Hughes, diocesan Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia.
“The experience of travel, not only to other cultures – which helps us to understand the universality of the Church – but with other people, also deepens your faith,” he said. “The particular manner of devotion that various cultures or pilgrims have grows our understanding of what devotion is.”
In 2022, Father Hughes and Bishop Dennis Sullivan will be leading the Diocese’s biannual pilgrimage to the Holy Land from Feb. 17-26, with an add on to Assisi and Rome from Feb. 26-March 3.
Among the Holy Land sites pilgrims will visit are Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Gethsemane, the Holy Sepulchre and more. Those who opt for the post trip will see the birthplace of Saint Francis of Assisi, and attend Mass in Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica with a visit to the Vatican Museums.
“If you’ve never been to the Holy Land, your imagination of what these places looks like versus the distances between them will be eye-opening,” Father Hughes said. “You think it [the distance between sites] is monumental. But when you experience it, you come to realize that Israel is basically the size of New Jersey and everything that took place there happened in an area about the size of South Jersey. Things are very, very close.”
He said he considers the Holy Land “the granddaddy of all pilgrimages” because “these are the sites where Jesus lived, worked, died and rose from the dead. Pilgrimages are important because they open our eyes and our hearts to experience the mysteries that we celebrate as part of our faith.”
“The Scriptures come to life,” he said, adding that “the difference between a pilgrimage and a tour is the availability of Mass, prayer, confession, etc.”
A significant number of pilgrims who are registered for the upcoming trip are not only second-timers, but people who have become like family to one another.
“It’s amazing how they start off being strangers, and in the course of 10 days or so, they’re friends,” he said.
For more information on the 2022 pilgrimage, visit www.pilgrimages.com/frhughes.
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