Where are the pilgrims now? National Eucharistic Pilgrimage makes its way to Indianapolis

Pilgrims on the Juan Diego route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage process on a track in Georgia. / Credit: Issy Martin-Dye

CNA Staff, Jun 28, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).

With just a few weeks remaining in the once-in-a-lifetime cross-country Eucharistic pilgrimage, participants in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage remain enthusiastic as new and different experiences unfold.

The four cohorts will converge in Indianapolis on July 16 for the National Eucharistic Congress from July 17–21. The processions have attracted thousands of participants in many areas, joining a core group of 30 young men and women committed to processing with the Eucharistic Jesus the entire way.

Jimmy Velasco, a seminarian for the Archdiocese of San Francisco, said that with the temperature nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the Serra Route group finally arrived at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, on June 25, where a crowd of 1,000 or so people joined for a Eucharistic procession. The group also prayed vespers with the Benedictine monks.

“We have been through a lot, but we’re holding it together. And God has been really blessing us a lot on this western route,” Velasco said at a Wednesday press conference with several pilgrims. 

The Serra Route, which has already made its way from San Francisco across the Rocky Mountains and through the Great Plains, included on June 21 a well-attended procession through Nebraska cornfields that ended at the Holy Family Shrine, a popular pilgrimage site.

Velasco said it was encouraging to him to see how many young families have attended the pilgrimage events. 

“You hear babies throughout the whole Mass, which is a very beautiful sign to see in a church. You know the Church is alive when you hear babies crying,” he said. 

With about two more years of study left at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California, Velasco said the pilgrimage experience has so far left him even more excited to offer the sacraments to people as a priest. 

“I never saw this coming, that I would be part of such a historic trip, let alone me being chosen out of all my other brother seminarians. It has really shaped my relationship with the Eucharist,” he said. 

“Seeing the faith of the people inspires me so much. I get to serve as a priest one day to these people and offer the sacraments.”

Pilgrims Charlie McCullough and Shayla Elm, walking the southern St. Juan Diego Route, noted as highlights a recent stop at the Catholic Newman Center of the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, where they spent some time with youth and young adults and had a large procession of about 800 people. 

McCullough echoed Velasco in observing that the enthusiastic participation of so many Catholics in the pilgrimage experience has dispelled any notion that the Catholic Church is a “dying church.”

“My time on pilgrimage has shown me that that’s kind of ridiculous, honestly. We are, as young people, inheriting a beautiful Church,” McCullough said. 

“There’s so many people that are my age that are so excited about the pilgrimage, that come to walk with us, that have a great zeal, that are eager to be with Our Lord and to honor Our Lord and to let him change their lives.” 

Mentioning further highlights, Elm said the Juan Diego Route recently completed a procession around a battlefield, praying for the souls of those who died there. In Atlanta, the pilgrims received a massive reception at Our Lady of Vietnam Catholic Church, which featured an authentic Vietnamese dinner afterward and even, to their surprise, a round of karaoke. 

The Juan Diego pilgrims also spoke fondly of a retreat they made at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. The shrine serves as the chapel for the cloistered Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, which houses the Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration. Elm said it was a powerful experience to enter the cloister and meet the sisters. 

“I will never forget the way they all looked distinct, but they all looked like Jesus,” Elm recalled. 

“Their faces were shining, like the Eucharist. And I said that to a few of them. I was like, ‘You all look like Jesus. You look like the Eucharist.’ And it’s because they just spend so much face time with the Eucharist that they’ve become like him.”

In Atlanta, the route stopped at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, a historically Black Catholic church just down the street from several sites associated with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., including the church where he preached and that houses his grave. Now that the route is in the Nashville area, McCullough and Elm said they are excited to pay a visit to the Nashville Dominicans — a vibrant order of sisters — and also take some downtime to enjoy the Nashville music scene. 

The northern Marian Route, which began in Minnesota, wrapped up its time in Wisconsin with a tremendous 50 stops in the Milwaukee area alone. Meanwhile, the eastern Seton Route celebrated their chaplain Father Roger Landry, the only priest committed to walking the entirety of a route, who marked 25 years as a priest while on pilgrimage.

Catholics throughout the U.S. are encouraged to register to join the pilgrims in walking short sections of the pilgrimages and joining in numerous other special events put on by their local dioceses. To read ongoing coverage about the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and National Eucharistic Congress, visit the National Catholic Register.