2025 Eucharistic pilgrimage launched with blessings by land, air, and water
In their first week of pilgrimage, eight young adults witnessed a bishop blessing his diocese with the Blessed Sacrament via helicopter, visited key sites in the life of sainthood-tracked Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and boated across the Mississippi River from Illinois to Iowa — all in the company of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.
The 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage launched May 18 from St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis — the same church where last year’s inaugural National Eucharistic Pilgrimage ended in July ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress. Following Mass celebrated by Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson, the pilgrimage’s eight “perpetual pilgrims” immediately set out in a van for the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois.
“To journey with Christ in this tangible, holy way — adoring him in silence as the countryside replaced the skyscrapers of downtown — was deeply moving,” said Charlie McCullough, the only 2025 perpetual pilgrim who was also a perpetual pilgrim last year.
They spent that first afternoon and evening at St. Mary Catholic Church in Paxton, Illinois, where Joliet Bishop Ronald A. Hicks received the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance and led adoration. A second Holy Hour was then held 25 miles away at Immaculate Conception Church in Gilman, followed by a Eucharistic procession and adoration about 50 miles north at St. John Paul II Church in Kankakee.
The next day began with Mass at St. John Paul II, followed by a Eucharistic procession at nearby Bishop McNamara Catholic School, and then a Eucharistic procession and adoration 40 west at Immaculate Conception Church in Morris, Illinois. Then, they entered the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, where they had five more events, including Mass, May 19.
Across 10 states and 20 dioceses
The fast pace of this year’s 36-day pilgrimage makes it possible for pilgrims to cross 10 states and 20 dioceses in a part of the United States largely missed by the 2024 four-route pilgrimage: the American Southwest. This year’s pilgrimage entered the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, May 21, and plans to pass through Iowa and into Kansas before going through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, ending in Los Angeles for the feast of Corpus Christi, June 22.
The eight “perpetual pilgrims” were chosen among applicants by National Eucharistic Congress Inc., the pilgrimage’s organizer. The pilgrims, all in their 20s, bring a variety of education, work and ministry experience to their roles, accompanying the Eucharist across the country and witnesses to Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist. Like last year, they are accompanied by chaplains from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.
On May 20, the pilgrims visited at least two sites of importance to the life of Archbishop Sheen: his baptismal site in St. Mary Parish in El Paso, Illinois, and his tomb in the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria, where the future bishop of Rochester, New York, was also ordained.
That day, pilgrims also witnessed Peoria Bishop Lou Tylka travel with the Blessed Sacrament via helicopter from OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria to OSF St. Mary Medical Center in Galesburg, Illinois, to bless his diocese as part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
Bishop Tylka had welcomed the pilgrims to the diocese the day before with a horse-led Eucharistic procession and then Mass, where he preached about the “hunger that is out there for something more than what the world presents.”
“I think that hunger, especially among young people — they are discovering that the only way to feed that hunger, it’s a spiritual hunger, a hunger to be united with God — is to find a home in church, and they are finding that in the Catholic Church,” Bishop Tylka said, according to The Catholic Post, the newspaper of the Diocese of Peoria.
Crossing the Mississippi
On May 21, the pilgrims crossed from Illinois into Iowa in dramatic fashion: via a boat across the Mississippi River.
“As I sat in the boat adoring our Lord as we crossed the Mississippi River with Bishop Tylka and four fellow pilgrims, I felt an overwhelming joy,” perpetual pilgrim Stephen Fuhrmann wrote in a reflection for OSV News.
“To be on the water with Jesus, just like the Apostles, was an experience that has illuminated my prayer today and will forever be something that I remember, even if I wasn’t asked to walk on water,” he said.
Once ashore in Iowa’s Diocese of Davenport, they were met by Davenport Bishop Dennis G. Walsh and around 60 people for a 4-mile Eucharistic procession that Fuhrmann described as “along the water, up and down hills (and) through the town of Burlington, Iowa.”
The pilgrims were expected to remain in the Davenport Diocese until May 23, when they were to head north to the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, for the Memorial Day weekend.
“With our hearts continuing to burn for our Lord,” Fuhrmann said, “he continues to pour out grace upon grace on each of us pilgrims and on everyone that encounters the pilgrimage.”
This article was written by Maria Wiering for OSV News.
Featured image: Bishop Dennis G. Walsh of Davenport, Iowa, kneels during Benediction at the grotto outside Sts. Mary and Patrick Parish in West Burlington, Iowa, May 21, 2025, as part of this year’s National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. (OSV News photo/Anne Marie Amacher, The Catholic Messenger)
