A pilgrimage to the Statue of Liberty honors immigrants past and present

Under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty and in view of Ellis Island, 60 pilgrims huddled beneath the 70-foot flagpole on New York’s Liberty Island. Rosaries swaying, they prayed to honor the immigrants that make up the United States of America, those who came hundreds of years ago and those making the journey today. 

“So much of our soul is rooted in immigrants, our personal individual souls and the soul of our country,” said Paulist Father Bruce Nieli, who imagined this pilgrimage with the help of his friend Rosalinde Block.

Father Nieli and other Paulist Fathers organized the event on July 1, dubbed the “America 250 Pilgrimage in Support of Immigrants.” Beginning with a bilingual Mass at Our Lady of Victory Parish near Wall St., the pilgrims made their way on foot towards Battery Park Ferry Terminal.

Along the way, they stopped to pray a decade of the rosary at several culturally significant sites, including the National Museum of the American Indian, the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and “The Immigrants” statue at Battery Park. 

At the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton pilgrims gathered across the street to pray for those who serve and support immigrants.

“That’s gonna be a reminder for us,” said Paulist Father Chris Lawton, who led the Mass and helped lead the pilgrimage “[of] all of the holy women and men who have promoted the cause for justice.”

For Father Nieli, supporting immigrants is central to his mission as a Paulist. He noted that the group’s founder, Father Isaac Hecker, was the son of German immigrants.

“Immigration has been given such a bad name through many of the current politicians [and] administration,” Father Nieli said. “We wanted to do something that’s an alternative to really highlight the debt we owe to our forebears, to those who have gone before us, both as individuals and as a nation.”

The pilgrimage brought together people from a variety of immigrant backgrounds. Bonnie Kahn, who immigrated from Hong Kong as a teenager, shared that despite living in New York City for decades, this was her first visit to Liberty Island.

She was not alone in the experience—president of the St. Vincent de Paul Association Gabriella Sacci Adickes, who is a first generation daughter of Cuban and Italian immigrant parents, said that this was her first visit since grammar school.

For many longtime New Yorkers, the landmark is simply another New York City attraction, primarily visited by tourists and school groups. But this visit inspired deeper reflection about its meaning.

Michael Cuschieri, who helped lead the pilgrimage, said that after five years living in New York, this was his first time visiting the Statue of Liberty: “It’s so funny because that’s such a staple of New York.”

Mr. Cuschieri said that the statue was the first thing many Americans’ ancestors saw when they arrived in the United States.

“It’s really such a symbol, not just of liberty, but also of how beautiful our country is, in terms of how diverse we are, and that’s something that should be absolutely celebrated,” he said.

Father Lawton hoped that the inclusion of the National Museum of the American Indian also fostered solidarity with Indigenous Americans. 

“We’re thinking about those of us who are descended from immigrants, our immigrant sisters and brothers today, but also our solidarity with the native peoples who were here,” he said. “And the importance of reflecting on the dignity of the human person for all of our sisters and brothers who make up the richness of our country.”

This expression was brought to life by Ms. Block, a multi-genre artist and longtime friend of Father Nieli, who led the procession with a sign she designed, a collage of the faces of hundreds of migrants to the United States. (Her sign was taken by Park Police, who did not allow her to bring it to Liberty Island for the final prayer stop of the pilgrimage.)

Her grandfather came from Smolensk, Russia, landing first on Ellis Island, where she says his name was changed from Yitzhak Milichnikov to Harry Milton.

Ms. Block, who is Jewish, read Emma Lazarus’s poem, “The New Colossus,” during the prayer service on Liberty Island. The poem, which includes Lady Liberty’s famous motto “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” hangs inside her pedestal.

Many of the pilgrims were parishioners of the New York mother church of the Paulists, the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Manhattan. Mr. Cuschieri is among St. Paul’s parishioners. 

“St. Paul’s is such a beautiful community in the sense that everybody’s story is so unique and so valuable and precious,” he said. “I think that in a way our parish is so vibrant because of that, especially because we have so many people who are immigrants or first generation Americans.”

“They add so much culture and perspective and joy and vibrancy to the parish…and that’s something that I think should be celebrated and not condemned.” 

Once on Liberty Island, the pilgrims prayed a final decade of the rosary in Spanish and held a special prayer service. 

Father René Constanza, the president of the Paulist Fathers, offered a reflection inspired by the symbolic elements of the statue—her torch and the broken chains at her feet—and Pope Leo XIV’s recent address to the Spanish parliament, urging that “the moral greatness” of a nation lies in its capacity to protect the most fragile. 

“We walk with those most vulnerable among us and recommit ourselves to protecting the life and dignity of every human person,” he said. “The torch that we see is worth carrying. The chains are worth naming as well. So we pray that as a nation, at 250, we have the courage to hold both.”

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