Spiritual, physical healing merge in new cancer shrine

By Ambria Hammel | Dec. 3, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

MESA — Cancer managed to bring hope and joy to many when the St. Peregrine Shrine opened last month.

It’s a place of prayer and resources for people — patients or not — affected by cancer. Some 800 Catholics, many of whom helped erect the shrine over the last year, turned out for its blessing and dedication Nov. 14 at Christ the King Parish.

St. Peregrine Shrine is named after the patron saint of cancer sufferers. And like the disease which often requires round-the-clock attention, the shrine is open 24/7 for eucharistic adoration.

“A tiny chapel welcomes the weak and makes them feel at home,” said Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted during a two-hour dedication Mass for the 70-seat chapel.

He blessed nearly every nook of the tiled chapel and later consecrated the altar with holy oil. The crowd watched via a remote feed from the church.

Visitors will not feel overpowered, except by the grace of God, the bishop said.

Rafaella Loera said she could feel Christ’s presence when St. Peregrine Shrine was still under construction. The Christ the King parishioner, whose father died of cancer, regularly checked on its progress.

“There’s going to be a lot of healings in there,” she said, referring to both spiritual and physical healing.

Shrine visitors can connect with volunteers trained by the American Cancer Society. They’ll offer information, education, individual support, wigs, medical equipment and other treatment supplies free of charge.

Catholics filed into St. Peregrine Shrine after Mass and were “a little surprised by its beauty,” according to Melissa Veselovsky, the shrine’s director. “Even I am not prepared for how beautiful it is when I walk in everyday.”

Many walked up the altar ramp to pray before the St. Peregrine statue. They also marveled at the stained glass windows and the decorative painting throughout.

Joan Wren found meaning in all four of the stained glass windows. She noted the window dedicated to St. Padre Pio, who is holding a woman afflicted by cancer.

“I prayed to him every single day while she was going through treatment,” Wren said of her 7-year-old daughter, Brigid. She’s been in remission from leukemia for three years.

Wren also noted the window depicting St. Thérèse de Lisieux. The saint is known for “the little way.” It’s the same with cancer, Wren said.

“One day at a time, you get through it.”

Her friend, Linda Henson, agreed. She’s a breast cancer survivor.

“There’s so many things that just hit you from the time that you’re diagnosed that this will provide a place of peace, to meditate and just really connect with the Lord,” Henson said.

The dedication got underway minutes after the chapel’s building was complete. Fr. Steve Kunkel, pastor, commemorated the event by laying the final brick on the path leading to St. Peregrine Shrine.

Chuck Lenhart, a parishioner who has lost many loved ones to cancer, carried that brick by foot from the Diocesan Pastoral Center in downtown Phoenix to the church earlier that morning.

He prayed for some 400 people throughout the six-hour, 18-mile trek. That’s how many names are engraved on the memorial bricks throughout the shrine’s circular pathway.

“I couldn’t do anything to take the cancer away from my mother or other family members, but I can pray and I can walk,” he said. “Maybe it will inspire other people.”

Lenhart will repeat the pilgrimage every year on the shrine’s anniversary.

“Our modern society has lost the sense of the value of suffering,” the bishop said, explaining that most don’t recognize the meaning of human suffering.

“Our age has lost the meaning, in other words, of the mystery of the cross. When those people come to St. Peregrine Shrine, we will not offer them false compassion,” he said. “We will offer them help in encountering the living Jesus Christ.”