October 11, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\nAs for the company he kept during the pilgrimage, the prelate expressed his joy at having walked the Camino de Santiago not only with a group of his own companions but also alongside other pilgrims from all over the world. He particularly noted crossing paths with an 89-year-old woman and a family with a 7-month-old baby.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo say that we were walking with everything is another way of saying that we were walking with the Church, together as brothers and sisters. Pope Francis said that the Catholic Church is \u2018everyone, everyone, everyone.\u2019 When we are gathered together, Jesus is with us,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He also noted that the apostle James was very much present throughout the journey. In this regard, he affirmed that James is \u201cnot merely part of our past history\u201d but is present today, for \u201che walked with us at every step.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referring to the feast of Our Lady of the Pillar \u2014 patroness of the Hispanic world, celebrated on Oct. 12 \u2014 Hicks recalled how she appeared to the apostle James in Zaragoza before her assumption into heaven at a time when he was feeling \u201ca bit discouraged\u201d at seeing no fruit from his preaching.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur Lady of the Pillar wants only one thing from us. She wants us to know her Son and to find salvation through, in, and with her Son Jesus Christ \u2014 in his life, suffering, death, and resurrection,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Hicks emphasized that the journey of faith is not limited to the Camino de Santiago; rather, \u201cour journey is with Jesus toward heaven, toward eternal life.\u201d In this regard, he added that the pilgrim\u2019s Mass does not mark the end of the Camino de Santiago: \u201cOur journey continues on to eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nA Journey Encouraged by Cardinal Dolan<\/p>\n
Hicks arrived in Spain on Sunday, Oct. 4, embarking on what he described \u2014 in posts shared on his social media \u2014 as a \u201cspiritual journey\u201d he had long wished to undertake.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been planning this journey for three years. Ever since I arrived, I kept asking myself, \u2018Will I have time to do it? Am I too busy? Should I put it off?\u2019\u201d he explained shortly before traveling to Spain.<\/p>\n
While weighing this decision, he received a call from Cardinal Timothy Dolan \u2014 his predecessor as archbishop of New York \u2014 who told him: \u201cI hear you want to do the Camino. Here is some advice: Do it, do it, do it. I always wanted to do the Camino but never could, and I regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taking that recommendation to heart, he decided to make the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, \u201cfollowing the voice of the Lord.\u201d To that end, he announced that he would disconnect from social media for the duration of the trip.<\/p>\n
And that is exactly what he did. Upon arriving Sunday in Compostela \u2014 standing in the imposing Plaza del Obradoiro beside the cathedral \u2014 he picked up his phone again to share that he had felt the Lord\u2019s companionship every step of the way: \u201cJesus was walking with me the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santiago de Compostela is one of five cities in the world that enjoy the privilege of celebrating jubilee years in perpetuity, alongside Jerusalem and Rome as well as Santo Toribio de Li\u00e9bana and Caravaca de la Cruz, both in Spain.<\/p>\n
This story was first published<\/a> by EWTN News Espa\u00f1ol, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his pilgrim\u2019s Mass homily, Archbishop Ronald Hicks recalled that \u201cOur Lady of the Pillar wants only one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-371582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}