By David Kilby | Correspondent
Catholic radio and pilgrimages have been a few of Gabriella Furmato’s favorite things for some time now.
And, in this Year of Faith, her opportunities to really embrace those interests have come to a peak with the success of her radio talk show “Everything is Grace” and her chance to go on a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi at a historic time for the Church.
Furmato will join a group of 19 pilgrims on the pilgrimage March 9 to 17, and will tour many holy sites in Rome, such as the Basilicas of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and the Catacombs of St. Callistus.
The pilgrimage, hosted by Domestic Church Media, or WFJS radio, through 206 Tours, may give the pilgrims a chance to experience firsthand what it’s like to be in Vatican City during a papal conclave. While planning the pilgrimage, though, Domestic Church Media had no idea it would be offering the pilgrims such an historic opportunity.
“We’ve been called there for a special reason,” Furmato said. “It’s no coincidence that our pilgrimage was planned for the exact time when all these changes are going on in the Church.”
Furmato, 24, said the group plans to pray for many people, and there is in fact a prayer request page on the radio’s website, www.domesticchurchmedia. org, where people can type in their personal prayer requests which will then be offered at holy sites in Rome.
Those interested in sharing the pilgrimage experience with the group can download the Instagram app on their smart phone and search for Furmato’s name or her username “roamingcatholic,” to view pictures and updates of the pilgrimage.
Furmato said the prayer requests and Instagram page are ways “to bring people with me who can’t be there. I feel like it’s not just me going. Family and friends will be in my thoughts and prayers. I really take them with me.”
Furmato said she loves Catholic radio and travel, which makes the pilgrimage the perfect fit for her. She said she has never been to Rome, but has been on pilgrimages before to Fatima, Avila and Santiago de Compestella in Spain and Portugal, Betania in Venezuela, World Youth Day Sydney in ’08 and WYD Madrid in ’11.
She said her opportunity to go on so many pilgrimages is an answer to a prayer she had in college, because when she attended Monmouth University she commuted from home and “didn’t take the risk to go out and live on my own. “ She recalled, “I prayed ‘Lord, please don’t let me regret not living away from home during college.’ Because that’s normally what college students do. But God still takes us on different adventures. I just wasn’t meant to go away for school.”
A few years after praying that prayer, opportunities to travel all over the world were presented to her over and over.
“I’ve learned in my pilgrimages to always be open because you never know what you’re going to learn or experience,” she said.
She added that on her pilgrimages she has learned to trust God and “to know he has a plan for me, that he’s personally involved in my life and really does take care of my soul. With the chances to go to all these amazing places, I feel like a special daughter sometimes.”
Also, all of the different people she meets on pilgrimage give her the chance to see the face of Christ in different ways.
Seeing Christ in others, and seeing how he works in their lives, are actually common themes in Furmato’s radio talk show on WFJS. In the show she interviews young adults and invites them to share how God’s grace has intervened in their lives.
Her show airs on 89.3 FM or 1260 AM WFJS radio, at 5 p.m. on Fridays, and 11 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. A promotion video of the show can be found at on You-Tube at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=q5Mm3Ohd6PA.
Her involvement with the radio station ironically emerged from her desire to travel. When she was looking for support in the days leading up to her pilgrimage to World Youth Day, she called WFJS to ask for help promoting the event.
But apparently God meant for that original interaction with the station to grow into something much greater. Domestic Church Media wanted to have a radio show for young people, and seeing Furmato’s youthful passion for the faith the station asked her to host such a show.
Furmato said she got the inspiration for the show’s name from St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s quote “Everything is grace. Everything is a direct effect of the Father’s love.”
She has hosted some well-known young people on the show such as Leah Darrow of www.chastity.com and Lila Rose of Live Action, a pro-life non-profit that specializes in investigative journalism, media and youth education. Through the show, she has helped promote the ministry of Danielle Rose, a culture of life musician.
But more than any other aspect of the show, Furmato said she enjoys allowing young people to share how God is working in their everyday lives.
