Easter Pilgrimage to Eastern Europe with Fr. Bong Tupino
Fr. Bong Tupino was the co-pilgrimage chaplain, along with Fr. Jeffrey Quinetela, for the April 16 to 29, 2017 edition of ‘Enthralling Eastern Europe’, a ‘Journeys of Faith’ pilgrimage tour that took pilgrims through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
Poland stops included Warsaw; Lichen with Poland’s biggest basilica and its icon of the Lady o f Sorrows ; Czestochowa, Poland’s spiritual capital and visited by pilgrims from all over the world, with the Black Madonna icon in the Jasna Gora Monastery; Wadowice, birthplace of St. John Paul II; Wieliczka with the underground salt mine that has a salt chapel; Krakow for the Wawel Castle and Cathedral, as well as St. Mary’s Church; Auschwitz-Birkenau with its Nazi concentration camp and the Convent of Sr. Faustina and the Sisters of Divine Mercy. In Hungary, the tour group visited the small village of Szentendre to celebrate Sunday mass, then Budapest with its Heroes Square, Parliament, Castle Hill, Coronation Church, and Fishermen’s Bastion. The pilgrimage visited the Abbey of Pannonhalma before crossing through Slovak Republic to see Bratislava before entering Czech Republic. Czech visits included Telc with its chateau and town square; Cesky Krumlov with its castle; Lomec; Prague with the Church of our Lady of Victories and its Sto Nino de Praga, Charles Bridge , t . Vitus Cathedral with Hradcany Castle, Golden Lane , Wenceslauss Square and other sights.
The tour had an optional extension to Russia that included \ive extra days in Russia, visiting Moscow and St . Petersburg. Fr. Bong left the tour to come back to Manila before the Russia extension. Those who opted for the extension were joined by another group.
There were 23 participants on the tour, led by tour guide Luigi. The 23 pilgrims included Armine Tagaysay and Ellen Chua of the LeCom and Apostleship of Prayer groups, Gigi Sawit, another CTK LeCom, plus a few other
parishioners from Valle Verde IV.
What struck Fr. Bong the most on this pilgrimage was how cold it got. “It was so cold – they forecasted temperature to be around 15 degrees centigrade – the hottest it got was six degrees above zero. And to think we were supposed to be sliding into late spring already. Instead, the locals joked that winter was followed by spring then winter again. So we all had to buy gloves and mufflers and caps – it was that cold.”
Fr. Bong recalled meeting a photographer on St. Charles Bridge in Prague who, when he found out that the group was from the Philippines, joked that he knew the country had three seasons. Of course, Fr. Bong corrected him and said ‘we only have wet and dry’. To which the photographer also corrected him and said, ‘No, you have hot, very hot, and very very hot.’ Fr. Bong also recalled meeting up with Fr. Simon Stefanowiczk, a smaller replica of Pope Francis, at the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa, a senior priest who loved to tour Filipino tour groups around since he had been to Quiapo Church, San Pablo, Laguna, Villa Escudero, Marilao, Bulacan and other places.
Armine Tagaysay and Ellen Chua had their own stories to tell. Armine was personally moved by the Auschwitz experience, especially the bravery and martyrdom of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the German death camp of Auschwitz. She also recounted being awed in seeing the original Divine Mercy painting, with the Lord outpouring His graces through the red and blue rays coming from his Heart, painted the way Sr. Faustina saw the Lord. “That’s when I recalled what Christ said to Faustina,” said Armine. “I have opened my heart as a living fountain of mercy; let all souls draw life from it.”
Ellen Chua, on the other hand, was most impressed with the Czestochowa visit to see the Black Madonna, located in the Chapel of the Mother of God, inside the Jasna Gora Monastery. “We were actually able to touch the relic of the Black Madonna located at the back of the altar but we had to reach it walking on our knees. We did this with the help of Fr. Simon.”
“When we reached the place, it was a long walk from the bus park to the monastery. And it was a total winter wonderland – snow everywhere. It was very cold, we were freezing to death, and it was all so slippery. In fact, I had to hold Armine coming from the bus and going back to the bus since she couldn’t walk as easily as I could,” Ellen recounted, laughing.
Journeys of Faith mounts several Catholic pilgrimage tours each year and is owned and operated by Willy and Arlina Onglao.
