The pilgrimage will begin during the feast of Pentecost, May 17–19, 2024, from four origin points: San Francisco in the west; Bemidji, Minnesota, from the north; New Haven, Connecticut, from the east; and Brownsville, Texas, from the south. The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s official website details each of the four routes along with the cities and dates.
The pilgrimage is being organized by the National Eucharistic Revival campaign in conjunction with Modern Catholic Pilgrim, a Catholic nonprofit dedicated to deepening the faith across the country through pilgrimages.
Will Peterson, founder and president of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, told CNA on Monday that they already have a list of about 70 people who have expressed interest in becoming perpetual pilgrims and hope to solicit a total of “a couple hundred, if not 1,000” applications.
Peterson said many, but not all, applicants will likely be college students and that the Congress plans to work closely with campus ministers at Catholic universities throughout the country to make sure students who might be interested receive the invite to apply. Kicking off the pilgrimage Pentecost weekend means many colleges will already be on summer break, he noted.
“Realistically, those who have two months to give over the summer period will oftentimes be the ones in school,” Peterson said.
“But we’ve also had Catholic school teachers reach out with interest; and nowadays we have a generation that makes a lot more transitions in their work, so there might be a 25-year-old who feels called to leave their job and take a few months to pray on what the next step is.”