Basilicas are churches in the Catholic Church that receive the honorific title by the pope. There are four major basilicas in Rome and the others worldwide are minor basilicas. Grady Connolly, founder of Social Thomist, joins this episode of On Mission with Chris Pierno, Sarah Scalfaro, and Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. to share his experiences taking pilgrimages around the United States to visit all 93 minor basilicas.

In this episode of On Mission, Alex Cranstoun, Assistant to the Director of Pilgrimages and Communications Specialist at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., joins William Tishuk and Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. to discuss Alex’s work at the Basilica, planning pilgrimages to the Shrine, and how pilgrimages are distinct from a vacation or a trip and are an analogy of the pursuit of Heaven on the Earthly journey and are means by which the faithful experience God in a unique way through a departure, travel, a visit to a holy or devotional site, and the return to one’s every day life, having been transformed.

In this episode of On Mission, Alex Cranstoun, Assistant to the Director of Pilgrimages and Communications Specialist at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., joins William Tishuk and Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. to discuss Alex’s work at the Basilica and what role shrines play in popular devotion of the Church’s members and as sacred places, which can hold relics of saints, commemorate famous apparitions, and are where people can encounter Christ and his Church’s redeeming work through the sacraments, particularly, Reconciliation and Eucharist.