Bryan Somerville of Charlotte, N.C., spent a year on the road with a 4-foot statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary as his passenger. Somerville helped organize a special Marian pilgrimage across the Diocese of Charlotte – which covers the western half of North Carolina – as part of the diocese’s 50thanniversary celebrations in 2022.
The diocese, founded on Jan. 12, 1972, now has 530,000 Catholics in 92 parishes and missions and 20 schools.
The custom statue depicts Mary, Mother of God, the patroness of the diocese.
Catholics honor Mary as the mother of Jesus, and this custom statue that traveled around the diocese offered people an opportunity to remember her role in salvation history and pray to her Son, Jesus.
