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Twenty-five young adults from the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s West Deanery at Holy Name Church on their urban pilgrimage.
Rachel Djauhari
September 17, 2025
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In the spirit of the Jubilee Year of Hope, 25 young adults from across the Archdiocese of Vancouver’s West Deanery walked over 14 kilometres to visit five parishes, joining a larger trend of urban pilgrimages.
The pilgrimage route took the group from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church on Crown Street to St. Augustine’s, Holy Name of Jesus and Sts. Peter and Paul Parish, ending with Mass at St. Anthony of Padua and a picnic at a nearby park.
The urban pilgrimage was organized by the Vancouver West Deanery Young Adults group, and although none of the stops were official Jubilee Year of Hope Pilgrimage sites, organizers said the pilgrimage was undertaken in the “spirit of the Jubilee.”
“Thank you to all who joined us for our Urban Pilgrimage!” said a post on the yavcatholic Instagram page. “It was so lovely to meet new faces, share stories and journey together through some of the parishes of the Vancouver west deanery. Thank you for being pilgrims of hope in this jubilee year.”
In March, the Vancouver vocations office organized a Jubilee urban pilgrimage to Holy Rosary Cathedral. Another is planned tentatively for Oct. 5, the Sunday preceding the Feast of the Holy Rosary two days later.
Similar “urban pilgrimages” have been appearing elsewhere. In Montreal, youth mapped out a Jubilee route through 10 downtown churches, while in Rome, Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz created an art-based pilgrimage linking sites across the city with his bronze works and QR-code reflections.
A version of this story appeared in the September 21, 2025, issue of The Catholic Registerwith the headline "Vancouver young adults make urban pilgrimage".
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Photo courtesy St. Michael’s Choir School
