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Dr. Guilherme Lopes, the new executive director of the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia in South Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
By Jay Sorgi \u2022 Posted October 30, 2026 <\/p>\n
St. Rita lived a ministry of reconciliation, bringing healing and peace to 15th century Italy. Her national shrine, located on Broad Street in South Philadelphia, has been offering that peace through an Augustinian lens for 119 years.<\/p>\n
The National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia now has a new executive director, Dr. Guilherme Lopes, who is leading the team that shares God\u2019s love through the shrine, which honors the patroness of impossible causes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not know much of St. Rita,\u201d said Lopes, a Brazil native who directed campus ministry at both Cabrini and Neumann universities and is in his first month leading the shrine.<\/p>\n
As his interviews for the job progressed, \u201cI started sneaking my way into the shrine just to see if I could get a bit of a vibe on what I was signing up for,\u201d Lopes said.<\/p>\n
Those glimpses turned into plenty of opportunities to take in and understand the charism of St. Rita. He saw Sacred Music Director Brooklyn McLaury Evangelista\u2019s work in leading music at the shrine, which brings a sense of God\u2019s comfort and healing intercession. He heard Augustinian Father Robert Guessetto preach a homily offering similar insights into what makes the shrine special.<\/p>\n
God then whispered to Lopes through his wife.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was like, \u2018I think if you get this job, you should take this job,\u2019\u201d he said. Lopes listened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this funny tradition of (how) we don\u2019t pick saints. Saints pick us. I felt this was where prayer and discernment took me to South Philly through the means of St. Rita, and who has invited me to this next chapter in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
That chapter involves fostering, enhancing and growing the welcome St. Rita\u2019s offers pilgrims in its large lower-level shrine. That welcome reflects Lopes\u2019 own experience as he came to America at 5 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Catholic Church was a place that was the first place of welcome for us. I think being a part of a place that is the first point of contact for a lot of people, in terms of even just community, I think is really important,\u201d Lopes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also think it\u2019s really important to make sure that the staff, the people who are engaged in community, often feel supported and made sure that ministry is at the forefront of the work that they do.\u201d
St. Rita\u2019s was once a parish, from its founding in 1907 until 2016, but now is a hub of spirituality and service in a place that brings pride to South Philly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne part of our share in the spiritual sauce is the welcoming that we try to extend as folks come by,\u201d said Father Guessetto.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a vibrancy, I\u2019d say, about South Philadelphia. The community is very, very strong. People are really invested in their community. They\u2019re invested in their history and their heritage, and the shrine is part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shrine to St. Rita, whose mission was focused on forgiveness, continues the mission of the former parish along Broad Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find myself just with such deep gratitude for the people who helped to build the shrine in the first place where it was their parish,\u201d said Katie Clymer, the coordinator of programs and pilgrimages at the shrine.<\/p>\n
The shrine offers pilgrims chances to encounter the saint\u2019s religious habit, many different relics, and a grotto in the building\u2019s lower level, while also including stained glass windows that tell the second half of the story of St. Rita\u2019s life as a religious sister after years as a wife and mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to have those visuals to use with people, not only to talk about the architecture of the shrine, but to talk about St. Rita herself, it really helps student groups or really anybody to get even more engaged with the life of St. Rita and to find more touch points for it,\u201d Clymer said.<\/p>\n
McLaury Evangelista says her ministry is meant to strengthen people\u2019s Catholic faith through music and art, adding yet another element to the uniqueness the shrine provides Catholics who come for renewal, healing and faith enrichment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe shrine is such a beautiful place from every aspect, whether you go to the lower shrine and you sit there in prayer or you go upstairs and you attend a Mass,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The shrine\u2019s staff, she added, constantly tries \u201cto find ways to minister to people who are in need of prayer and her intercession. Just every moment of the day, in terms of music, we try to focus on things that people might not be hearing in their daily parish life. It\u2019s all in all just a different experience being here.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that uniqueness that Lopes hopes is a door-opener for people not only to take in the life of St. Rita and God\u2019s story through it, but to act as peacemakers in the world.<\/p>\n
Now is the time when, Lopes believes, there is a renewed desire to heal the growing brokenness in our world.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy prayer has been recently, \u2018Lord, please help me to continue to be, or to learn or relearn how to be, a peacemaker,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cRita\u2019s life is a clear example.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dr. Guilherme Lopes, the new executive director of the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia in South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[129413,8364,69,71,70,129414],"class_list":["post-317665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-guilherme-lopes","tag-jay-sorgi","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-st-rita-shrine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}