By Jay Sorgi • Posted October 30, 2026

St. Rita lived a ministry of reconciliation, bringing healing and peace to 15th century Italy. Her national shrine, located on Broad Street in South Philadelphia, has been offering that peace through an Augustinian lens for 119 years.

The National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia now has a new executive director, Dr. Guilherme Lopes, who is leading the team that shares God’s love through the shrine, which honors the patroness of impossible causes.

“I did not know much of St. Rita,” said Lopes, a Brazil native who directed campus ministry at both Cabrini and Neumann universities and is in his first month leading the shrine.

As his interviews for the job progressed, “I started sneaking my way into the shrine just to see if I could get a bit of a vibe on what I was signing up for,” Lopes said.

Those glimpses turned into plenty of opportunities to take in and understand the charism of St. Rita. He saw Sacred Music Director Brooklyn McLaury Evangelista’s work in leading music at the shrine, which brings a sense of God’s comfort and healing intercession. He heard Augustinian Father Robert Guessetto preach a homily offering similar insights into what makes the shrine special.

God then whispered to Lopes through his wife.

“She was like, ‘I think if you get this job, you should take it,’” he said. Lopes listened.

“There’s this funny tradition of (how) we don’t pick saints. Saints pick us. I felt this was where prayer and discernment took me to South Philly through the means of St. Rita, and who has invited me to this next chapter in my life.”

That chapter involves fostering, enhancing and growing the welcome St. Rita’s offers pilgrims in its large lower-level shrine. That welcome reflects Lopes’ own experience as he came to America at 5 years old.

“The Catholic Church was a place that was the first place of welcome for us. I think being a part of a place that is the first point of contact for a lot of people, in terms of even just community, I think is really important,” Lopes said.

“I also think it’s really important to make sure that the staff, the people who are engaged in community, often feel supported and made sure that ministry is at the forefront of the work that they do.”

St. Rita’s was once a parish, from its founding in 1907 until 2016, but now is a hub of spirituality and service in a place that brings pride to South Philly.

“One part of our share in the spiritual sauce is the welcoming that we try to extend as folks come by,” said Father Guessetto.

“There’s a vibrancy, I’d say, about South Philadelphia. The community is very, very strong. People are really invested in their community. They’re invested in their history and their heritage, and the shrine is part of that.”

The shrine to St. Rita, whose mission was focused on forgiveness, continues the mission of the former parish along Broad Street.

“I find myself just with such deep gratitude for the people who helped to build the shrine in the first place where it was their parish,” said Katie Clymer, the coordinator of programs and pilgrimages at the shrine.

The shrine offers pilgrims chances to encounter the saint’s religious habit, many different relics, and a grotto in the building’s lower level, while also including stained glass windows that tell the second half of the story of St. Rita’s life as a religious sister after years as a wife and mother.

“To be able to have those visuals to use with people, not only to talk about the architecture of the shrine, but to talk about St. Rita herself, it really helps student groups or really anybody to get even more engaged with the life of St. Rita and to find more touch points for it,” Clymer said.

McLaury Evangelista says her ministry is meant to strengthen people’s Catholic faith through music and art, adding yet another element to the uniqueness the shrine provides Catholics who come for renewal, healing and faith enrichment.

“The shrine is such a beautiful place from every aspect, whether you go to the lower shrine and you sit there in prayer or you go upstairs and you attend a Mass,” she said.

The shrine’s staff, she added, constantly tries “to find ways to minister to people who are in need of prayer and her intercession. Just every moment of the day, in terms of music, we try to focus on things that people might not be hearing in their daily parish life. It’s all in all just a different experience being here.”

It’s that uniqueness that Lopes hopes is a door-opener for people not only to take in the life of St. Rita and God’s story through it, but to act as peacemakers in the world.

Now is the time when, Lopes believes, there is a renewed desire to heal the growing brokenness in our world.

“My prayer has been recently, ‘Lord, please help me to continue to be, or to learn or relearn how to be, a peacemaker,’” he said. “Rita’s life is a clear example.”