Hundreds of pilgrims and devotees participated this Sunday in the traditional procession of the Virgen del Valle, which took place through the streets of the capital of Catamarca, marking the culmination of the Marian festivities in the province.
The procession, with the lectern containing the image of the Virgin, had the peculiarity of returning to the route of nine years ago (April 2013): left from Plaza El Maestro, minutes after 5 pm, towards Paseo de la Fe, accompanied by the bishop of Catamarca, Luis Urbanc, the governor of the province, Raúl Jalil, and the mayor of the capital, Gustavo Saadi, among other provincial authorities.
Catamarca police spokesmen reported that since the beginning of the festivities, which began on Saturday, April 23 with the solemn lowering of the sacred image from the Camarín, to the Paseo de la Fe, 6,997 people entered the province.
Meanwhile, the pilgrims who entered Catamarca in recent days were assisted by different church groups, which offered free breakfast and food at assistance posts located in different parts of the Catamarca capital.
The procession, under a cloudy Catamarcan sky and a temperature of 22 °, traveled more than 17 blocksdecorated for the occasion with yellow and white pennants, towards the Paseo de la Fe, where hundreds of faithful with Argentine flags and white handkerchiefs awaited the image of the Virgen Morena.
“We did not know that the procession was going to pass through here, we found out when they began to decorate the light poles and we saw the people who began to gather in the square. It fills us with pride that the Virgencita passes in front of our homes as it used to be done,” María Muro told Télam.neighbor of the Plaza del Maestro.
Minutes after 7:00 p.m., the processional column, headed by the Virgin, entered the Paseo de la Fe, in front of the Basilica Cathedral, where the bishopric of Catamarca had set up a stage so that hundreds of faithful could contemplate the sacred image.
During his message to the faithful, Bishop Urbanc asked the Virgin “for all the workers in the world and so that there is paid work for all, so that families have enough to live with dignity.”
Finally, the bishop mentioned the war between Russia and Ukraine, and called for the cessation of hostilities.
“Mother of the Valley, please attend to the cry of your children, especially that of the Ukrainians who have been invaded and terribly destroyed. For the millions of mothers who have fled with their children, for the elderly, sick and refugees. That this hell of death and destruction is over and that human beings understand that with war nothing is won, and everything is lost”Urbanc noted.
