2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage traveled through Iowa, northwest Missouri and Kansas
A Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita, Kansas, to remember 67 victims of the Jan. 29 air collision in Washington was celebrated on May 28 as part of the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. The American Airlines-operated flight that collided with a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River had originated in Wichita.
The 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage left Indianapolis May 18 accompanied by chaplains and the Eucharist, with plans to reach Los Angeles for the feast of Corpus Christi, June 22.
In his May 28 homily, Wichita Bishop Carl A. Kemme preached about the importance of eucharistic processions bearing witness to Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist.
“Who we carry into the streets today is none other than Jesus Himself,” he said. “It is one thing to believe this and keep this mystery contained within the four walls of our churches, but it is quite another to bring this mystery out into the streets for the entire world to see.”
He continued: “The Eucharist is not my private procession or yours. It belongs to all of us, and it belongs to the entire world, even a world that looks upon it sometimes with disdain or perhaps irritation, or, at worst, disbelief.”
While at the Wichita cathedral, pilgrims visited the tomb of Venerable Emil Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain during World War II and the Korean War, who died in 1951 at age 35 while ministering to other prisoners of war in a North Korean prison camp. Pope Francis named the priest, whose cause for canonization is underway, “venerable” in February.
The pilgrims began the second week of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, where they led a 6-mile procession May 24 between two rural, historic Iowa churches, St. Boniface in New Vienna and Sts. Peter and Paul in Petersburg.
“For two-and-a-half hours, we prayed, sang and silently followed Jesus along the scenic country roads connecting the two parishes. The quiet beauty of it all was captivating,” perpetual pilgrim Ace Acuña wrote in a reflection on the pilgrimage’s live blog.
The day before, the pilgrims had arrived with the Blessed Sacrament in the Dubuque Archdiocese by boat. After attending events in several parishes and a priestly ordination at the Cathedral of St. Raphael in downtown Dubuque, the perpetual pilgrims and their chaplains from the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal left the Dubuque Archdiocese May 27 for the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa, where they experienced eucharistic adoration and Mass at St. Ambrose Cathedral.
They then drove across southwest Iowa and into the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri, where they stopped at St. Monica Catholic Church in Kansas City for a Holy Hour and ended their day at Camp Kateri Tekakwitha in the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.
The pilgrims spent May 28-30 in the Diocese of Wichita before visiting Oklahoma’s Diocese of Tulsa May 30-31 and the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City May 31-June 3.
The National Eucharistic Congress Inc., which organized the pilgrimage, estimates that at least 7,000 people joined 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage events in its first week.
