Mariamabad (AsiaNews) – Pakistani Catholics are "ready for the annual national Marian pilgrimage" and the "police is cooperating fully with us even though we have private security guards in service," said Mgr Lawrence Saldanha, archbishop of Lahore and chairman of the Bishops' Conference, as he spoke to AsiaNews about the 57th Ziarat-e-Muqaddasa Mariam, i.e. Pakistan's annual Marian pilgrimage.

But whilst the event begins tomorrow and end on Sunday, thousands of faithful of every age have already made their way to the shrine by all kinds of means of transportation.

"The theme of this year's pilgrimage, 'Mary, Our Perpetual Help', is particularly relevant for us," Archbishop Saldanha said. "We chose it because of the suffering Pakistani Christians are enduring, such as attacks against churches, the one against our community in Sangla Hill for instance that happened last November."

"At the same time, the political and economic situation of the nation is not very good. The population is scared of the situation and so we are calling on Mary to always be by our side," he added.

"Christians are not the only ones participating in the pilgrimage; many Muslims come to the Mariamabad shrine as well," explained Roy Naveed Zafar, a Christian lawyer from Faisalabad. "I go every year and this year three Muslim friends are coming too."

The annual event was organised for the first in 1949. It was the brainchild of Father Frank, a Belgian Capuchin who was later martyred. As time went by, the number of faithful going on this pilgrimage grew to the point that today it is now running in the hundreds of thousand.

On June 23, 1974, Mgr Armando Trindade, then archbishop of Lahore, set up the commission now in charge of its organisation.