On Wednesday, April 19, the president of the Gypsy Blessed Cross Association, Csaba Kövesi, and his entourage arrived at the office of the archdiocese of Veszprém for the mass that started at 12:00.
At the beginning of the Mass, Archbishop György Udvardy expressed his joy that "we can prepare together for the visit of the Holy Father". As he said, the cross has traveled around the country several times before, announcing one big event after another, and now he hopes that this blessing and this pilgrimage will help as many people as possible to participate in the visit of Pope Francis to Budapest.
The Csatka cross started its journey again to address and invite everyone. The cross in Csatka also proclaims that we were, are and will be in our Catholic Church - said Csaba Kövesi, the president of the association.
After the blessing of the archbishop, the cross began its missionary journey from Veszprém. In Szombathely, Bishop János Székely receives the association for a common prayer, then arrives in Székesfehérvár, then continues to Kalocsá, Esztergom, Szentendré and Debrecen.
Csatka is the pilgrimage site of the praying Saint Virgin in the Komárom-Esztergom county, the Marian shrine in the Veszprém Archdiocese. For centuries, crowds made pilgrimages to the Mother of Mercy, while in 1962 the bishopric of Veszprém officially recognized it as a place of pilgrimage and permitted farewell pilgrimages.
The main farewell of the shrine is on September 8, the Feast of Our Lady of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At this time, many people make a pilgrimage to the prayer chapel, where, in addition to Hungarian, they also hold a mass in German and Gypsy languages.
Source and image: Vasarnap.hu/Veszprémi Archdiocese
