The annual income from tourism could be heavily boosted if the Roman Catholic Church in Jamaica expanded its pilgrimages to include visitors from overseas. The pilgrimages could also include members of the Orthodox churches, including the Ethiopian Orthodox who have some of the same practices as Roman Catholics.

The feast of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic Church takes place each year on October 7. The Roman Catholic Church is obedient to the Magnificat as found in Luke 1: 48, where Mary proclaims that “all generations will call me blessed”.

The rosary initially represented the 150 Psalms, which was represented on as many beads and was originally referred to as the ‘poor man’s prayer book’. The rosary was eventually centred on gospel verses around the Blessed Virgin Mary and with much less beads.

The idea of using beads as an aid in prayer did not originate in the Roman Catholic Church. It was a cultural adaptation in some parts of the world, and its use in the Christianity goes back to the 12th century.

Using acceptable practices found in cultures and adapting them to religious worship is quite ancient. Jesus Christ used the Jewish Passover to institute the Holy Eucharist at what has been called the Lord’s Supper and also called by some the Last Supper.

There are less than 60,000 Roman Catholics in Jamaica. This is because of our unique history in which the Roman Catholic Church was banned in Jamaica for 136 years between 1655 and 1791. Admiral William Penn and General Robert Venables captured Jamaica on behalf of the English dictator Oliver Cromwell in 1655. At that time the Church of England (or Anglican Church) became the established church in Jamaica in keeping with the edicts in England by King Henry VIII, 121 years earlier in 1534. This explains why the Roman Catholic Church is so small in Jamaica and its practices little understood by Jamaicans.

Jamaica was dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as Our Lady of the Assumption in 1953 — two years after Hurricane Charlie hit Jamaica in 1951. Roman Catholics believe that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven. In later years all natural disasters were included in the petitions at the pilgrimage. Judging from his homily at the pilgrimage mass this year, on Sunday, August 13 2017, it appears that Archbishop Kenneth Richards intends to include social disasters such as crime and violence from now onwards.

Has such prayers worked at all? As laughable as it may seem to many Protestants and others who do not adhere to the Roman Catholic Church, we believe that it is more than a coincidence that Jamaica has had the full effects of only one hurricane since that time, Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Incidentally, in 1988 the pilgrimage was cancelled as the church in Morant Bay was being repaired.

Some Roman Catholics believe that there is a connection between the cancellation and Hurricane Gilbert, but I do not share that view. Still, look at what happened this year, 2017. Hurricane Harvey reverted to a tropical wave as it passed to the south of Jamaica, only to turn to the north-west, regain strength, and devastate Texas, USA.

Normally for a hurricane to dissipate it needs to pass over a fair amount of land. Where is the large land mass between Jamaica and Colombia? Was this a miracle? I do not know, but it should be investigated, especially as it happened after we made our pilgrimage this year.

If Roman Catholics worldwide, as well as members from the Orthodox churches, were to come to Jamaica and join in such prayers, they would need accommodations. We Roman Catholics in Jamaica are so few in number that we could not accommodate all pilgrims from overseas. We would therefore have to invite the Protestants, Evangelicals, “worldlians’, atheists, and even pagans to accommodate them — even if you laugh at our practice while earning some money.

At the end of the 20th century the Roman Catholic Church had Eucharistic Congresses in three Caribbean territories including Jamaica. It was the Roman Catholic laity who accommodated the pilgrims from the other Caribbean lands. But it is one thing to accommodate 300 people. It is quite another to accommodate many thousands. We Roman Catholics in Jamaica could not do this on our own given our few numbers. And there is more, especially in respect to the Blue Mountains.

Sometime in the 1980s Maria Fresco, who resides in Florida, USA, had a dream that pilgrims from all over the world would flock to the Blue Mountains in Jamaica in pilgrimage to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary. She had a sculptor make a statue of what Mary looked like in her dream.

After much controversy within the local Roman Catholic Church the statue of Our Lady of the Blue Mountains was erected at the St Martin de Porres Church in Gordon Town, St Andrew, at the foot of the Blue Mountains on Saturday, November 25, 2000.

Some argue that the statue should have been placed either at the peak or somewhere near the top of the Blue Mountains. But the Roman Catholic Church does not have any church higher than Gordon Town on the St Andrew side of the Blue Mountains. Nor is there any Roman Catholic Church higher than St George’s Church in Avocat on the Portland side of the Blue Mountains.

If pilgrims were to come from all over the world to the Blue Mountains, this would be a heavy boost for tourism at different times throughout the year. May is month of the Blessed Virgin Mary. August is when the pilgrimage in Morant Bay is held, and October is the month of the Rosary.

And then the Protestants and Evangelicals could laugh all the way to the bank since they would be earning an income from something you do not even believe in. Perhaps some might then see the efficacy in such prayers. And if you are thinking like me, we could form tourism co-operatives that would eventually own hotels.

ekrubm765@yahoo.com