Ruadhán Jones
As borders reopen across Europe, Niall Glynn of Marian Pilgrimages is “cautiously optimistic” that pilgrimages can begin in late July or early August. Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Mr Glynn said that they will be looking at restarting pilgrimages on a shrine-by-shrine basis.
“We’re cautiously optimistic,” he said. “A lot of it will come down to requirements, procedures and policies in the regions themselves.
“For the Holy Land, we’re looking at starting in September, Medjugorje around August.
“Lourdes is an interesting one, it’s a situation moving very quickly from where they were two weeks ago.
“The shrine was pretty much closed two weeks ago, only 10 people at a time, but within a week and a half they had reopened.
“We’d be looking to put in our first small pilgrimage in and around the end of July, early August, with larger groups later in August.
Mr Glynn said that the main concern was safety and ensuring that high standards could be met regardless of location.
“We’re taking a look and see approach, leaving it alone for a month, seeing how things pan out and if it’s safe, then we’ll ramp it up.”
“A lot of it will come down to extra buses, extra guiding, extra hotel facilities so that we can maintain necessary distancing. We’re setting up procedures so that come August/September, we’re ready to send people out.”
Mr Glynn praised the “loyalty and devotion” of pilgrims, many of whom have not asked for their deposits back.
“A lot of people see it almost as necessity to get pilgrimage once a year, so if they can’t get out earlier, they will get out later, but it all comes down to safety in the end,” he said.
“They’re extremely content with our services, and the loyalty is there that they’ll say look, keep the deposit until later on in the year. The hunger is there.”