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September 4, 2025By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Those interested in visiting the Worcester diocese’s pilgrimage churches for the Jubilee Year of Hope are invited to do so with Knights of Columbus, who have planned three different bus trips this fall to get to all 10 churches.
The Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan Council 12710 of Millbury and Sutton is sponsoring the pilgrimage on a Sunday this month and the next two months. Leading the trips is a past Grand Knight, Deacon Walter F. Doyle, a member of St. Mark Parish in Sutton and co-director of Urban Missionaries of Our Lady of Hope in Worcester.
Each date, those traveling are to meet at 11:45 a.m. at St. Mark’s, where they can leave their vehicles and board a school bus, Deacon Doyle said. He said the plan is to pray the rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet at each church and stamp the Pilgrim’s Guide passport booklets, and, hopefully, return to St. Mark’s between 4 and 5 p.m.
Deacon Eduardas V. Meilus, who serves at St. John Parish in Worcester, is to lead prayers on one of the trips, Deacon Doyle said, and he is also seeking other people to help in that way. He said he did not know if priests will be able to join them.
On Sept. 14 pilgrims are to visit Notre Dame Church of St. John Paul II Parish in Southbridge, St. Joseph Basilica in Webster, St. Paul Church of Divine Mercy Parish in Blackstone, and Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Milford.
On Oct. 12 they are to visit Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church of Annunciation Parish in Gardner, St. Cecilia Church in Leominster, and St. John the Evangelist Church of St. John, Guardian of Our Lady Parish in Clinton.
On Nov. 9 they are to visit Our Lady of the Rosary Church of Mary, Queen of the Rosary Parish in Spencer, St. Paul Cathedral in Worcester, and St. Matthew Church in Southborough. After this last trip, the Knights of Columbus are providing a free dinner at St. Mark’s for the travelers.
Pilgrims can go to any or all of the dates for $10 per adult each trip, payable when arriving at St. Mark’s to board the bus. Children age 13 and under travel for free. Those interested in any of the trips are to register by Sept. 8 by calling Deacon Doyle at 508-269-9596 or emailing him at [email protected].
“The jubilee pilgrimage is meant to be the outward sign of an inward journey that all of us are called to make toward our final destination,” says the Knights’ flyer about their pilgrimage, quoting Pope Francis.
“We can’t all go to Rome,” Deacon Doyle noted. “Bishop McManus made it easy for us. He designated the 10 churches” in the Worcester diocese as pilgrimage sites. Not everyone could go to those churches when the bishop did, and the Knights wanted to visit them all, he said. So, they decided on this way of doing so.
Deacon Doyle said he talked with Father Michael A. DiGeronimo, his pastor, who became a senior priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Worcester this summer, and who had taken youth on pilgrimage for the Jubilee Year held 25 years ago.
“I’ve contacted all the [pilgrim] churches” for the current Jubilee Year, so they are expecting a group, Deacon Doyle said.
He said the Knights decided to invite parishioners from their churches – St. Mark’s, and St. Brigid and Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Millbury – to join them on the trips. Then it was suggested that they announce the trips in The Catholic Free Press and the Diocesan Dispatch so people from other places could go too.
“We can take as many as we want,” Deacon Doyle said, explaining that a bus holds 48 people and more than one bus can be taken if needed. If the groups are too small for a bus, cars would be taken instead, at no cost to travelers, he said.