The pilgrimage to Rome planned by the International Kolping Society for October 25-27, 2022, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the beatification of Adolph Kolping will not take place. Owed to considerable planning difficulties caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, KOLPING INTERNATIONAL has cancelled the major event today.
The pilgrimage to Rome 2022 of the International Kolping Society was planned to be another great celebration: a meeting of numerous members from all over the world who would celebrate together the 30th anniversary of the beatification of the founder of the Association Adolph Kolping from October 25 to 27. But the ongoing pandemic continues to make it impossible to concretely plan a major international event taking place over several days. “At present we are not only experiencing that we cannot get binding commitments on the part of the churches in Rome to be able to celebrate with several thousand Kolping sisters and Kolping brothers in the large Roman basilicas,” explains the Executive Committee of KOLPING INTERNATIONAL in a letter to the Association today. “We also get the comprehensible feedback that many members cannot and do not want to register bindingly because they do not know whether in October of this year the pandemic will be under control to the extent that we can sit close to each other on buses and trains and that we can sing and celebrate together without endangering one another.”
Due to these planning uncertainties, the International Executive Board of KOLPING INTERNATIONAL has taken the decision to completely cancel the pilgrimage to Rome in 2022. “Already last year the Coronavirus pandemic forced us to postpone the pilgrimage to Rome for the 30th anniversary of the beatification of Adolph Kolping, which was on October 27, 2021, by one year to 2022. There will be no further postponement,” affirms Msgr. Christoph Huber, General Praeses of KOLPING INTERNATIONAL. “Rather, we will see how we can bring those individual actions to a good conclusion that were planned as part of the pilgrimage to Rome. This includes the handing over of the many thousands of signatures from all over the world that the Kolping Society Germany has collected for a canonization of Adolph Kolping. We will discuss how we can hand over these signatures to Pope Francis in order to lend emphasis to our heartfelt concern for a canonization of our “father of the journeymen“,” said the General Praeses.
On behalf of the entire International Executive Board of KOLPING INTERNATIONAL, Msgr. Christoph Huber asks for everyone’s understanding for the cancellation of the 2022 pilgrimage to Rome. “Today’s cancellation is made at the earliest possible time for us, so that all Kolping Families, Diocesan Kolping Associations and National Kolping Associations that wanted to be present in Rome in October, will have planning security. And I can only sincerely ask for your understanding that this is a decision that is difficult for all of us, but at the moment regrettably it is required by reason.”
