Everything is ready for the 39th edition of the pilgrimage on foot from Sinnai to Bonaria scheduled for tonight. A rite of extraordinary intensity, of faith and prayer also in memory of Pope Francis. A pilgrimage that this year will start from the parish church of Santa Barbara: seven hundred chairs and a giant screen have already been set up in the square to give those who cannot find a seat in the church the opportunity to follow the mass from outside.
Concelebrating the mass (15 minutes after midnight) will be the Archbishop of Cagliari, Monsignor Giuseppe Baturi, with the parish priest of Santa Barbara, Father Gabriele Biccai, of Sant'Isidoro, Don Sandro Piludu and other priests of the Curia.
This year's pilgrimage is also enriched by the presence of the wooden cross made by the prisoners of Uta on the occasion of the Jubilee Year . The participation of thousands of prayer travellers is expected. We will leave from Sinnai around 2 am , with a short stop at the entrance to the town where the rite of returning a statue of the Madonna di Bonaria to its niche will be repeated. An evocative event, accompanied by prayer and the voices of the S'arrodia choir of Sinnai, directed by Maurizio Boassa.
A religious rite that is renewed over time that did not stop even during the years of Covid: at that time, between 2020 and 2022, the pilgrimage had been replaced by masses in the parish of Santa Barbara and Sant'Isidoro with the Mercedarians who had brought the statue of the Madonna of Bonaria to Sinnai in a climate of very strong, intense emotion also in the presence of the Archbishop of Cagliari, Monsignor Baturi.
These will be moments of extraordinary intensity: then the pilgrimage will set off (with young people, the elderly, people in wheelchairs) towards Settimo San Pietro and Selargius where a refreshment stop is planned at 4 am at the Salesians . Then, around 5 am, the journey of faith and hope will head towards Monserrato and Pirri. At sunrise, the wayfarers of prayer, escorted by volunteer associations, will reach Cagliari. Around 8 am, the arrival at the Basilica of Bonaria.
As always, the pilgrimage is organized by the association “Il Segno” with the collaboration of the parish. «Everything is ready – says Pierangelo Soi, president of the same association. A great commitment with pilgrims announced from different parts of Sardinia».