During this Holy Year of Jubilee, we will be holding at least one Laudato Si’ Mini-Pilgrimage or environmental event in each of the FOUR Seasons of Creation!

Saturday 9 August 2025 will be the date of our Laudato Si’ Mini-Pilgrimage for Summer! After the 11am Mass at St Mary’s Catholic Church in Knaresborough, we will have our packed lunches in the church’s garden or Parish Hall before setting off on a short, guided walk down to St Robert’s Cave and the Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag.

(With many thanks to Knaresborough Town Council for offering us their new professionally-trained Town Guides to point out some of Knaresborough’s history, religious heritage, and  beautiful natural surroundings along the route!) 

In common with all our diocesan pilgrimages, this walk is fully risk-assessed, so requires all walkers to sign up by contacting communications@dioceseofleeds.org.uk

During the 2025 Holy Year of Jubilee, there will be Laudato Si’ Mini-Pilgrimages to several environmentally-important areas and other sacred sites within our Diocese. These include:

31 May – Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds (via the Leeds-Liverpool Canal towpath);

9 August – From St Mary’s Catholic Church to the Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag and St Robert’s Cave on the banks of the River Nidd at Knaresborough;

4 October – A ‘LiveSimply’ Harvest Festival & Blessing of Animals at St Benedict’s Catholic Church in Garforth;

13 December – An Advent Eco-Fair and Rosary Walk at our Pastoral Centre, Hinsley Hall in Headingley.

(Please contact communications@dioceseofleeds.org.uk if you would like a FREE stall at this Winter event, to sell your eco-friendly crafted, recycled or repurposed items – especially if they’re suitable for last-minute ‘stocking fillers’ or ‘Secret Santa’ presents!)

Since 2018 our Laudato Si’ Mini Pilgrimages have been celebrations of God’s Creation and of our care for the earth, Our Common Home. They began as short, seasonal, guided walks through Ilkley’s Myddelton Grange estate woodlands to the Calvary led by Estate Manager Paul Elgar who initiated and implemented diocesan conservation projects on the Myddelton site. It is thanks to parishioners at Sacred Heart, Ilkley who came on that first ‘pilgrimage recce’ that proposals for wheelchair-accessible pilgrimages to the Calvary are in progress.

Feel free to get in touch via communications@dioceseofleeds.org.uk with suggestions for Laudato Si’ Pilgrimages in YOUR parish; your ideas will be warmly received! 

The short pilgrimage routes are especially suitable for school groups and the Diocese of Leeds Faith in Action Awards. 

We remember in our prayers the late Paul Elgar, the Myddelton Farm Estate Manager whose conservation knowledge and expertise was so much a part of these mini-pilgrimages: may he rest in peace.