Archdiocese of San Francisco<\/a>, the route was soon formulated.<\/p>\n\u201cWe looked at the distances between the caminos and thought, what would make sense? What would be easy, to have a good experience?\u201d remembered Father Iwancio. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Oh, San Francisco \u2014 that makes sense!’\u201d<\/p>\n
And due to Father Iwancio\u2019s persistence, Camino de San Francisco pilgrims can also receive the Camino de Santiago de Compostela credit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great because it creates something that\u2019s permanent. People can walk with a group, or they can walk on their own,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s not just walking and visiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way Father Chris designed this was to have the ability to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy,\u201d noted Marlow. \u201cThey\u2019ve had outreach to the poor \u2014 sandwiches made for the unhoused, and other service-oriented activities like that. So there\u2019s not only the opportunity for personal reflection on your spiritual journey to our Lord, but also the ability to help and assist others who are in need in and around the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Year of St. Francis<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful expression following up on Pope Leo\u2019s call for a special year of St. Francis,\u201d Marlow added. \u201cAnd where better to be able to do that, than in the city named after him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Father Robert Barbato \u2014 a Capuchin Franciscan friar and rector of the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in San Francisco \u2014 agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would like the camino here named after him, as it brings pilgrims from the quiet beauty of Marin County to the beautiful but at times harsh reality of life in the city named after him,\u201d Father Barbato told OSV News in an email. \u201cFrancis would be happy that pilgrims both experience the beauty of God\u2019s creation and the beauty of Jesus\u2019 face in the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Father Iwancio also thinks pilgrimages can be an antidote to troubled times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to create more moments and spaces of encounter \u2014 and the pilgrimage really provides an opportunity for people to encounter peace and encounter one another,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople encounter Christ on the streets \u2014 and then hopefully, by walking, they see the door open. They see the welcome, the warm welcome: \u2018Come on in.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimberley Heatherington<\/a> is an OSV News correspondent. She writes from Virginia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"22 (OSV News) \u2014\u00a0There\u2019s no way to know how many miles St. Francis of Assisi walked during his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-469045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}