By Maria Wiering
OSV News
Eight “perpetual pilgrims” are planning to journey from Indianapolis to Los Angeles May 18 to June 22 in the second National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. They hail from several states and include both college students and young professionals.
The young adults plan to follow the Drexel Route through 10 states and 21 dioceses, accompanying the Eucharist. Along the way, they will stop at parishes and other sacred and secular places for Mass, eucharistic processions, eucharistic adoration, prayer, and charitable works.
The pilgrims include Arthur “Ace” Acuña, a Las Vegas native who is pursuing a degree in chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University in New Jersey; Stephen Fuhrmann, who grew up in Texas and is studying agricultural business at Texas A&M University; Johnathan Silvino Hernandez-Jose, who helps run his family’s construction company in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Cheyenne Johnson, a Florida native who serves as the director of Catholic campus ministry at Butler University in Indianapolis; Rachel Levy, who grew up in Indiana and works for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in young adult and college campus ministry; Charlie McCullough, a mechanical engineer in Austin, Texas; Leslie Reyes-Hernandez, an Illinois native and public high school math teacher in Phoenix; and Frances Webber, who was raised in Virginia and is a college senior in Minnesota.
McCullough was a perpetual pilgrim on last year’s Juan Diego Route through the southern U.S. and will help lead this summer’s pilgrimage.
The first National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in 2024 included 30 perpetual pilgrims who traveled four routes that launched from the nation’s North, South, East, and West on Pentecost weekend May 18-19 and converged in Indianapolis ahead of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, July 17-21. The pilgrimage and congress were highlights of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival, an initiative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that began in 2022.
This year’s pilgrimage follows a shorter time frame, beginning on Pentecost and ending on the feast of Corpus Christi, and a single route. The route is named for St. Katharine Drexel, an American socialite who founded a religious order and used her inheritance to educate Native American and African American children.
The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is accepting prayer requests — submitted online at eucharisticpilgrimage.org — for the eight pilgrims to take with them on their journey.
Cutline for featured image: Father Michael Thiel, diocesan chaplain for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, is joined by perpetual pilgrims on a pontoon boat on Shawano Lake near Cecil, Wisconsin, during a one-hour eucharistic boat procession June 12, 2024. The perpetual pilgrims disembarked the boat and walked to Camp Tekakwitha, a youth summer camp owned by the Diocese of Green Bay, where they spent the evening. On March 4, 2025, National Eucharistic Congress Inc. announced the “perpetual pilgrims” of the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s Drexel Route. The route is scheduled to begin Pentecost Sunday, May 18, following a Mass of thanksgiving in Indianapolis. It will cover several Southwestern states and end in Los Angeles on the feast of Corpus Christi June 22. (OSV News photo/Sam Lucero)
