– Marco Carvalho
The Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio Tagle, will be in Portugal in May to preside over the first international pilgrimage of the year, in the Sanctuary of Fatima. In October, it will be the Archbishop of Seoul’s turn to officiate at the “Altar of the World.”
Two Asian cardinals will preside over the main international pilgrimages this year in the Sanctuary of Fatima. The move is seen as “a sign of attention” to Asia and the Asian Catholic communities, it was recently disclosed.
After Cardinal António Marto, bishop of Leiria-Fátima, announced last June that this year’s first international pilgrimage, to be held in May, was to be overseen by Luis Antonio Tagle, Archbishop of Manila, “in a sign of attention to Asia,” the Sanctuary confirmed last week that the last international pilgrimage of 2019 – scheduled for the 12th and 13th of October – will be presided over by the Archbishop of Seoul, Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-Jung.
Luis Antonio Tagle has been Archbishop of Manila since 2011. The current president of Caritas International was elevated to cardinalship by Pope Benedict XVI in November 2012, the Sanctuary informs in a brief press release.
Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-Jung was elected titular bishop of the ancient bishopric of Thibiuca, in Northern Africa, and appointed auxiliary bishop of Seoul on December 1, 2001, having been consecrated on January 25, 2002 at the Chang Choung Dong Stadium, in Seoul, by the now Archbishop emeritus of Seoul, Nicholas Cheong Jin -Suk.
Member of the Permanent Council and Commission for the Missions and of the Commission for the Pastoral of Health of the Korean Episcopal Conference, as well as chair of the Committee for the Lay Apostolate, Archbishop Yeom was promoted to the Seoul Metropolitan Cathedral on May 10, 2012.
On January 12th, 2014, Andrew Yeom Soo-jung was appointed as cardinal, an investiture that took effect in the first ordinary consistory promoted by Pope Francis on February 22nd, 2014.
All the other minor pilgrimages which will be promoted by the Sanctuary this year will be presided over by Portuguese clerics. The auxiliary bishop of Porto, Armando Esteves Domingues, will be in charge of the so called “pilgrimage of the children,” scheduled for the 10th of June, while António Luciano dos Santos Costa, bishop of Viseu, will supervise June’s international pilgrimage.
One month later, in July, the international anniversary pilgrimage will be presided over by the auxiliary bishop of Lisbon, Daniel Batalha Henriques. Rui Manuel Sousa Valério, bishop of the Portuguese Armed Forces, will be the invited president for the international pilgrimage anniversary of September.
In 2018, the first international pilgrimage of the year was presided over by Cardinal John Tong, Bishop Emeritus of neighboring Hong Kong. Alexis Mistsuru Shirahama, chair of the Japanese Diocese of Hiroshima, took over the last international celebration of the year, held in October.
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