Thousands of pilgrims from all over the world have been in Rome this week, celebrating the life and achievements of Mary Ward and calling for her beatification. After a failed attempt to become an enclosed nun, Mary worked in the underground Catholic networks in London at the beginning of the 17th century, and felt that God was calling her to religious life without enclosure. She founded her Congregation in 1609, based on the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, with its members modelling themselves on the mobility and missionary focus of the Jesuits.
The week-long celebration began in the Piazza del Popolo where an international group in 17th-century costume re-enacted Mary Ward’s entry into Rome after one of her heroic journeys on foot across the Alps. They greeted a group of sisters who had been making stages of the actual journey in pilgrimage over the past three years. More than 1,000 sisters of the Congregation of Jesus and Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto) from every continent in the world, plus colleagues, students, staff and friends have been visible around Rome in brilliant yellow scarves, praying and marking the 400th anniversary of her pioneering vision for women.
Events included an international symposium addressed by Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ, who lectures in Systematic Theology and Spirituality at Heythrop College, University of London, Australian-born canon lawyer, Dr Mary Wright, formerly general superior of the IBVM, now working in Rome in the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, and Professor Martha Zechmeister CJ of the University of Central America in San Salvador.
Liturgies around Rome included processions with international flags, dance by sisters from India and music sung by the choir of St Mary’s School Shaftesbury, which also sang at the papal audience and in St Peter’s Basilica. During a reception at the British embassy to the Holy See, ambassador Francis Campbell took the opportunity to thank the sisters present for their contribution to the many sectors of British society in which they have worked and served since the founding of the Bar Convent, York, in 1686.
On Wednesday, the Mary Ward pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square and called for her rapid canonization. ‘Pope Benedict himself is a past Mary Ward pupil from our schools in Germany’, says Sister Gemma Simmonds, ‘and is a great admirer of hers. She gave so much to the Church and to society, not only for her own day but for ours. The time for her amazing achievements to be recognized is long overdue, so if the Pope is coming to England next year to beatify Cardinal Newman it would be a most opportune moment for there to be two English beatifications instead of one. This has been a brilliant opportunity for us to see how Mary Ward’s influence extends across the world. I hope it will prove to be a good rehearsal for the next great celebration’.