Building a Culture of Pilgrimage in the US — One Step at a Time, by Jonathan Liedl

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, with its four-cross country routes, 6,500 miles, hundreds of stops, and 100,000-plus participants, is shaping up to be one of the defining elements of National Eucharistic Revival.

But it almost didn’t happen.

Tim Glemkowski, the CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress, shared with the Register that when he joined the project in April 2022, the idea for multiple national pilgrimage routes “was dead in the water.”

“It had been presented to a few groups to help plan the logistics, who came back with same answer: ‘This isn’t possible.’”

Still, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, chairman of the bishops’ group advising the National Eucharistic Revival, and the initiative’s leaders weren’t ready to give up on the idea. And as Providence would have it, Glemkowski stumbled upon the webpage of an apostolate that specialized in leading and coordinating walking pilgrimages: Modern Catholic Pilgrim. ….