Pilgrims of Hope — But Hope Requires Honesty

Pope Francis declared 2025 a Jubilee Year with the theme "Pilgrims of Hope." The Diocese of Pittsburgh has embraced the theme with resources, prayers, and events. I'm glad for it. We need hope.

But I've been an architect for over thirty years, and one thing the profession teaches you is this: hope is not a blueprint. You can hope a building will stand. But if the foundation isn't sound, hope won't save it.

The Catholic Church in Pittsburgh has been on a journey since the Grand Jury Report of August 2018. Seven years now. We've seen parishes consolidated under "On Mission for the Church Alive." We've seen a new bishop in Mark Eckman. We've seen programs and committees and listening sessions.

What we haven't seen enough of is the structural change that would make hope feel less like aspiration and more like architecture.

CCOC was founded because a group of committed Catholics believed that constructive reform — not revolution, but reform — was both possible and necessary. We believed that lay people had a rightful role in the governance of our Church. We still believe that.

When I hear "Pilgrims of Hope," I think about what it takes to walk a real pilgrimage. You don't just set out with good intentions. You prepare. You bring provisions. You study the route. You acknowledge the terrain will be difficult. And you walk with companions, because no one makes a pilgrimage alone.

The Synod on Synodality, which concluded its assembly phase last October, used the language of "walking together." That's what synodality means — syn-hodos, the same road. It's a beautiful idea. It's also a practical one. When the Pope says the Church should walk together, he means that decisions shouldn't be made only by clergy for the rest of us. He means that lay voices matter — not as suggestions to be noted and filed, but as genuine contributions to how the Church moves forward.

Here in Pittsburgh, we have an opportunity. Bishop Eckman is still relatively new. The diocese is still finding its footing after years of consolidation. The national conversation about synodality is creating openings that didn't exist five years ago.

CCOC's seven focus groups — from financial transparency to supporting abuse survivors to engaging youth — are not abstract exercises. They represent the practical infrastructure of hope. They are the blueprints.

This Jubilee Year, I'm asking my fellow Catholics in the Diocese of Pittsburgh to do something simple: show up. Come to a CCOC event. Read our progress reports. Ask your parish how it's implementing synodal practices. Write a letter to the bishop. Talk to your neighbors in the pew.

Hope is a theological virtue. But it's also a verb. And pilgrims, by definition, are people who move.

Let's move.