"As the sun set on the 73rd annual Tekakwitha Conference at its namesake's birthplace July 21, dozens of pilgrims joined hands and formed a circle, launching a traditional dance symbolic of friendship.

It also seemed to represent what many attendees described as a feeling of coming full circle as members of the Catholic family.

More than 800 Native American Catholics converged in Albany July 18-22 for four days of workshops, liturgies and pilgrimages to two shrines in other locations in the Albany Diocese -- the birth and baptismal places of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the conference's patroness.

She was born and baptized in what is today Auriesville and Fonda, respectively.

This year's gathering was scheduled to take place in "Kateri country," as many natives call upstate New York, years before the Vatican approved the final miracle needed to make Blessed Kateri the first member of a North American tribe to become a saint."

Get the Story:
Native Americans say canonization brings them full circle as Catholics (Catholic News Service 7/24)
Tekakwitha Conference attendees celebrate tribal customs, Catholicism (Catholic News Service 7/25)

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