‘You can become a saint’

By Emily Chaffins -

MIAMI | Young Billy Pfeiffer was a reluctant pilgrim to World Youth Day in August 2023.
 His father, Bill Pfeiffer, the Archdiocese of Miami pilgrimage leader, convinced him to make the trip to Lisbon, Portugal, to garner an interesting experience for college essays. However, the teen got way more than he’d bargained for.

“At the end, he said he wanted to do it again,” said his father, Bill.

Now studying at University of Central Florida in Orlando, Billy will be attending the Archdiocese of Miami’s pilgrimage to the 2025 Jubilee of Young People, an event taking place in Rome from July 28 to August 3, 2025. Alongside his dad, Billy will guide high school pilgrims joining St. Mark the Evangelist Parish’s group – including Billy’s brother, Joey, who attends Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School in Southwest Ranches.

The father-and-sons trio has a special intention in mind: healing for their mom, who has cancer. “For dad, going on pilgrimage with this intention is ‘not a sad thing, it’s a worthy cause,’” said Billy.

“My family has never been stronger,” he added.

The Pfeiffers are among the approximately 120 pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Miami’s, including young adult and college groups, high schools, and parishes, who will experience a Mass and public audience with Pope Leo XIV. South Florida pilgrims will be sporting the archdiocese pilgrimage T-shirt, an Inter Miami CF soccer club-style shirt emblazoned with “Miami” on the front and “Leo 14” on the back.

“Seeing Pope Leo is one of the highlights,” Bill Pfeiffer said of the first U.S.-born pope. “We’re going to go in the crowd, hold the U.S. flag, and say, our home is here.”

Stephen Colella, the archdiocese’s cabinet secretary of Evangelization and Parish Life, gifted Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski with one of the shirts.

“We work hard to prepare group leaders to, in turn, prepare pilgrims - so when God speaks, they can listen,” said Colella.

The Jubilee of Youth is just one of many gatherings occurring during the Jubilee Year 2025. This special year designed by the late Pope Francis, in which Catholics focus on what it means to become “Pilgrims of Hope.” As part of the year’s celebration, Catholics can gain indulgences for themselves or for the souls in purgatory. Making local pilgrimages or pilgrimages outside the country is a popular method for gaining indulgences.

For Colella, it’s important to provide “good formation, because we don’t know where the pilgrim is starting from and where God wants to take them.”

The five chaplains attending the archdiocese pilgrimage play a part in this formation: Miami Auxiliary Bishop Enrique Delgado; Father Jaime Acevedo, pastor of St. Mark Church; Father Jean Laurent, chaplain of Encuentros Juveniles; and Fathers Rafael Capó and Hilary Nwainya from St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens.

Another important aspect is the pre-pilgrimage presentations that parish and school group leaders are equipped to offer.

Colella noted that his office provides pilgrims with information about the architecture, history, art, and relics of the places they are visiting. "So when we take them through the Holy Door and they see Michelangelo's Pietà, it connects the ideas and the content shifts to their hearts, making for a moving experience."

Besides the Archdiocese of Miami pilgrimage group, the South Florida Neocatechumenal Way group is bringing a large number of pilgrims. Eight buses will be filled with young people and two buses with adult pilgrims.

During the Jubilee of Young People Mass July 17, 2025, at St. Mary Cathedral in Miami, Archbishop Wenski blessed outgoing pilgrims.

“A pilgrimage is a journey of faith that, in a way, mirrors one’s life journey. We should not go through life as simply tourists looking to be pampered, but as pilgrims,” he said in his homily.

“Carrying excess baggage on a pilgrimage, like carrying a lot of excess baggage through life, can make the journey onerous and joyless,” he added. “During your pilgrimage, make sure you get rid of excess baggage by going to confession. Lighten your load, and you will see how that will make the pilgrimage something that you will remember forever.”

 

RAISING UP YOUNG SAINTS

The Jubilee of Young People pilgrimage isn’t the only notable event for young Catholics this year. On September 7, two young Italians will be canonized: Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, a mountain climber and patron saint of athletes who died at age 24, and Blessed Carlo Acutis, a teenage tech enthusiast and the first of the millennial generation to be canonized.

Monica Kan, a young adult who is part of the Neocatechumenal Way at St. Cecilia Parish in Hialeah, has been inspired by both saints.

In May 2023, Kan visited with the miraculously incorrupt body of Blessed Carlo Acutis in Assisi, Italy. She was struck by the fact that “Carlo has sneakers on and Nike gear.”

“He was someone I can actually relate to,” reflected Kan, a member of YAG, Young Adult Ministry at  St. Augustine Parish in Coral Gables. “Seeing the simplicity of his life shows you can become a saint just by living your daily life.”

Blessed Acutis’ attitude toward the leukemia diagnosis that would take his life is another source of inspiration for Kan, a nurse who works with children.

“He was so convinced about the resurrection that he was like, I can do this. I can withstand anything, and I can face death because the resurrection exists,” she said, a thought that resonates with this Jubilee of Hope.

As for Blessed Frassati, who died in 1925, Kan feels like he has been “saint-stalking” her, as she joked.

“In different conversations with people, on social media, he would just come up,” said Kan, who visited his tomb in Turin. “What was cool about Blessed Pier Giorgio was that it wasn’t necessarily my grandma or mom who was telling me about him - young people were telling me about him.”

From hiking and “having fun,” to volunteering for the poor, to weathering family turmoil, Kan believes Blessed Frassati has a lot to teach young people about living life with hope.

“It’s fitting that both saints are being canonized during the Jubilee of Hope, because the future of the Church and the hope of the Church is the youth,” said Kan. She will be attending the Jubilee of Young in Rome. “God is still pouring out graces. He did it in the 1900s with Pier Giorgio, He did it with Carlo in the 1990s and 2000s, and He’s still doing it today.”

 

Want to get in on the action?

• Later this year, a group of Archdiocese of Miami pilgrims will witness the canonizations of Frassati and Acutis in Rome September 7. To register, click the registration page or contact Susana Diaz at [email protected] with any questions.