During the blazing summer of 2024, four National Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes set out from opposite ends of the United States, traversing vast swaths of the country. Tens of thousands of Catholics knelt in prayer and adoration as Eucharistic processions passed through cities and towns, often led by Knights of Columbus honor guards.
By design, the four routes gradually formed the shape of a giant cross, converging in Indianapolis for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, held July 17-21, 2024. The event kicked off the third and final year of the National Eucharistic Revival — the Year of Mission.
On the final day of the congress, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, chairman of the National Eucharistic Revival, made an unexpected closing announcement before the 50,000 gathered in Lucas Oil Stadium. A second cross-country Eucharistic pilgrimage would take place in 2025.
“At this point, we’re planning next spring a pilgrimage — just one — that will begin in Indianapolis and end in Los Angeles,” Bishop Cozzens said.
What immediately came to mind for Andy Allen, a member of San Luis Obispo (Calif.) Council 1271 who was present with his wife, was a north-to-south route to intersect with the east-to-west pilgrimage, forming a cross.
“I thought, ‘What would make a better cross-piece than California’s El Camino Real, which connects the state’s 21 historic missions?’” Allen recalled.
In fact, the idea occurred to more than just Allen. A core group of like-minded Knights and other Catholics soon coalesced and began organizing the first Camino de California, which retraced the steps of the Franciscan missionaries who spread the Catholic faith along the West Coast during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Pilgrims on the Indianapolis-to-LA route, named for St. Katharine Drexel, set out this past May on a five-week voyage of missionary discipleship. They eventually united with those on the Camino de California in San Diego, site of the first mission founded by St. Junípero Serra in 1769. Together, they concluded their journey to Los Angeles, arriving on Corpus Christi Sunday, June 22.
BEARING CHRIST IN THE STREETS
On May 18 — the same day Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Mass inaugurating his pontificate — more than 3,000 pilgrims met in Indianapolis on the Drexel Route, to launch a 3,340-mile journey through 10 states and 20 dioceses en route to Los Angeles. Among them were eight “perpetual pilgrims,” young adults committed to journeying the entire 36-day pilgrimage. Shepherded by one or more Franciscan Friars of the Renewal serving as chaplains, they traveled with the Blessed Sacrament in a specially equipped van with a tabernacle and monstrance holder, stopping for daily Masses, Eucharistic processions and Holy Hours in parishes, cathedrals and shrines along the route.
The route honored its namesake, who in the late 19th century accepted Pope Leo XIII’s invitation to serve as a missionary in the United States. In 1891, St. Katharine Drexel founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to evangelize Native American and African American communities. Over her lifetime, she established more than 60 missions and schools across the West and Southwest; several key sites related to her work were stops on the pilgrimage.
Framed as distinctly Eucharistic journeys, both the Drexel Route and Camino de California shaped participants through prayer and mission — and the Knights were again there to help set that tone.
“The Knights created a space of importance for our Eucharistic Lord to be processed down center aisles or throughout towns and cities,” said Stephen Fuhrmann, a senior at Texas A&M University and member of Lindsay (Texas) Council 11905 who served as one of the perpetual pilgrims. “They set the precedent for who we were honoring: Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.”
K of C honor guards led the way May 20 as pilgrims on the Drexel Route visited the Diocese of Peoria on “Sheen Day.” Dedicated to the life and witness of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen — an esteemed archbishop, evangelist and longtime Knight — the day began in El Paso, Illinois, where he was born and baptized, and ended at his tomb in Peoria’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, where he was ordained.
Fuhrmann was particularly moved the next day while crossing the Mississippi River in a small boat with Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria and the Blessed Sacrament.
“As I sat in the boat adoring our Lord with Bishop Tylka and four fellow pilgrims, I felt an overwhelming joy,” Fuhrmann wrote in a May 21 blog post for OSV News. “To be on the water with Jesus, just like the apostles, was an experience that has illuminated my prayer — even if I wasn’t asked to walk on water.”
After crossing the Mississippi River, the route turned south through Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma. Along the way, pilgrims performed corporal works of mercy, including distributing clothes and bus tickets in Davenport, Iowa, and serving food to the poor in Wichita, Kansas.
“This really opened my eyes to what it means to seek the heart of every person and remind them of their dignity and identity in Christ, no matter where they are in life,” Fuhrmann reflected.
In Wichita, the pilgrims visited the tomb of Korean War chaplain Venerable Emil Kapaun and later traveled to Oklahoma City’s Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine before heading west through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. They proceeded through California, where the national pilgrimage met with the Camino de California at Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
CALIFORNIA’S CATHOLIC ROOTS
The idea of organizing an 800-mile pilgrimage to all 21 historic missions, involving bishops across California — and coordinating it in less than a year — was, in a word, audacious.
Yet on July 21, 2024, as Sal Caruso listened to the closing announcements at the National Eucharistic Congress, he, like Andy Allen, was struck by inspiration.
As he put it in an interview this past June on JP2 Catholic Radio, “We need to bring the faith of Jesus out into the streets of California.”
After Caruso and Allen were introduced a few months later, a team of lay organizers came together, eager to make the Camino de California a reality. Modeled on the national pilgrimage, the Camino spanned 17 days, from June 6 to 22. Also shepherded by Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in a specially equipped van, some 100 dedicated pilgrims followed the Eucharistic Lord. They stopped at each mission for processions, adoration, confession, corporal works of mercy and other special events — including a visit to a state prison near Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad.
On the first day of the pilgrimage, Bishop Robert Vasa of Santa Rosa joined a K of C honor guard and a dozen Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa in leading a procession through Sonoma. Greg Wood, a member of Santa Clara Valley Council 3608 in Santa Paula and one of the organizers, was especially grateful for access to Mission San Francisco Solano, operated by California State Parks.
“[The park system] permitted us to enter the restored chapel with Jesus in the Eucharist for 15 minutes of adoration,” Wood recalled. “The chapel was packed. All, on our knees, rejoiced in this being the first time the Eucharist had been in the chapel for over 100 years!”
At Mission Dolores Basilica the following day, Bishop Michael Barber of Oakland — who was baptized there decades earlier in a font once used by St. Junípero Serra — preached to Camino pilgrims about the region’s Catholic roots.
“I was delighted to see so many young people walking the Camino de California and worshiping in the same holy mission temples that sustained the faith-life of our Native peoples,” he said. “They are the first Christians of California. We owe them so much.”
One of the largest events took place June 8 at Mission Santa Clara, where Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose led more than 2,500 people in a Eucharistic procession.
“When a shepherd leads us with Christ, we the sheep will follow,” said Caruso, who joined the Knights in October 2024. He noted that next year’s Camino will commemorate the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the order that established the 21 missions of California.
“Participation by bishops from each diocese we traveled through really touched our pilgrims,” Allen added, “as did the presence of more than 30 priests, deacons, seminarians and religious sisters who were traveling with us.”
Throughout the Camino, Knights were a consistent presence — ushering water to pilgrims, coordinating K of C-sponsored meals, and providing logistical and spiritual support.
“The Knights were always very joyful and generous,” said Franciscan Friar of the Renewal Father Giles Barrie, a Camino chaplain. “They exemplified a true sense of masculinity while pouring themselves out for others as Christ did.”
A CONVERGENCE OF PILGRIMS
When the two pilgrimage groups gathered for Mass in San Diego on June 17, U.S. bishops from throughout the country concelebrated, as they were there for a special assembly and national retreat.
“Never in my life would I have thought I would attend a Mass with most of the bishops of the U.S.,” Fuhrmann wrote afterward. “To witness the shepherds of the U.S. come together in one place was inspiring and comforting.”
Several days later, Christian Clifford, an author and member of San Mateo (Calif.) Council 1346 who participated in the Camino, gave a presentation on St. Junípero Serra and California mission history at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Pasadena.
“When fellow Knights learn that I write and speak about St. Junípero Serra, they support it because they also see it as defending the Church,” Clifford said. “It’s a spectacular thing to see men defend the Church not only intellectually, but spiritually, as witnesses of faith in action.”
As pilgrims neared the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, they stopped to pray with families affected by fire in Altadena, including a blessing at the home site of Peter Halpin, a member of Alhambra (Calif.) Council 2431, whose house was destroyed by the Eaton Fire. Pilgrims also gathered at the site of Corpus Christi Church in Pacific Palisades, where all but the church’s tabernacle was destroyed in January 2025.
“Even when things look dead, even when destruction seems total, God is with us,” said Bishop Cozzens, who led morning prayer there with the perpetual pilgrims. “And the power of his Paschal Mystery cannot be stopped. As we surrender our lives to it, it transforms us — and through us, it continues to transform the world.”
The journey culminated in Los Angeles on June 22 with the closing Mass for both pilgrimages. Celebrated by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, papal nuncio to the United States, and with Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles preaching the homily, the celebration filled the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
“We are happy to welcome the pilgrims who have come from across America, bearing the Eucharist in procession through the streets, sharing their love for Jesus all along the way,” Archbishop Gomez said. “These past three years have been a season of grace for the whole Church in this country. I think we all have come to understand that the Eucharist is the heart of God’s plan of love for human history and his plan of love for each of our lives.”