Catholics often think of pilgrimages as long-distance journeys to shrines or other noteworthy sacred spaces. But across the United States — including in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis — hundreds of Catholics will make pilgrimages next month to special places that are not far away at all: The natural world in their own neighborhoods.
Known as Pilgrimages of Hope for Creation, these prayerful walks are taking place in recognition of a convergence of three major events in the Church: the designation of 2025 as a Jubilee Year for the Church; the 10th anniversary of “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home,” Pope Francis’ landmark encyclical on the environment; and the 800th anniversary of St. Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures.
The Catholic Church has a longstanding tradition of encouraging pilgrimages during Jubilee years, combining physical movement with spiritual growth. Building on this Jubilee’s theme of Pilgrims of Hope, Pilgrimages of Hope for Creation invite participants to ponder their relationship with the created world as they experience it in real time.
“Most pilgrimages in the past have been from one holy space to another, one church to another, or one Stations of the Cross, or a grotto, or something,” said School Sister of Notre Dame Kathleen Storms, who is leading efforts to coordinate pilgrimages for the Laudato Si’ Movement Minnesota Chapter. “And we said, you know, what’s the most holy of what we have? And it is Earth.”
The Minnesota pilgrimages are part of a nationwide initiative involving nearly two dozen organizations, including the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Catholic Climate Covenant and the Laudato Si’ Movement. In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the Laudato Si’ Movement Minnesota Chapter is taking the lead on coordinating and supporting pilgrimage planners throughout Minnesota. The chapter was created in 2023 as an expansion of the Care for Creation Team that started in the archdiocese in 2019 with support from the Center for Mission, which supports the missionary outreach of the archdiocese. The chapter gathers Catholics from around the state to advocate for and practice care for creation.
“We see (pilgrimages) as one of the rituals that are part of our tradition that we need to be integrating into our care of creation and our celebrating the Jubilee Year of Hope,” said Ann Mongovin, a member of the chapter’s Vision Circle. “We’re excited to be part of the animating force.”
From rosary walks to river hikes
Most of the pilgrimages will take place during the Season of Creation, the period from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4 each year in which Catholics and other Christians celebrate God’s creation and acknowledge in a special way the responsibility to care for it and for each other.
Given Minnesota’s biggest claim to fame, it’s not surprising that many of the pilgrimages will theme around water. St. Timothy in Blaine, for instance, is planning a pilgrimage walk Sept. 27 at Coon Rapids Dam. The event will include traditional Catholic practices such as praying a litany and a rosary. In addition, planners hope to have a naturalist talk about the importance of the Mississippi River — which Washington, D.C.-based American Rivers recently designated as the most endangered river in the U.S. due to management changes — and explore opportunities to help protect the river.
Pilgrimage organizer Cindy Novak, senior pastoral associate for life and learning at St. Timothy, said the event aligns well with what parishioners have discerned by studying Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical.
“Everyone has been impressed with this idea of ecological conversion,” she said. “Our care for creation has to be grounded in our understanding of our connection with God, that all creation reveals God to us. We need to listen to creation.”
Anne Attea, program minister for the Center for Spirituality and Social Justice at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, is coordinating an interfaith pilgrimage walk Sept. 19 from Our Lady of Victory Chapel on campus to the nearby Mississippi River. There, participants will reflect on humans’ relationship with water and Catholics’ call to be stewards of the Earth. Afterward, pilgrims will return to the chapel, where they will explore ways to respond to that call.
MORE INFORMATION
Laudato Si’ Minnesota Chapter has abundant resources to help hold a pilgrimage. Contact Sister Kathleen Storms at kstorms@ssndcp.org or 651-238-8122.
To learn more about integrating the Catholic faith with care for creation, go to chapter.laudatosimovement.org/north-america-minnesota or email minnesota@lsmchapter.org.
“The idea is to bring folks together and raise awareness of our interrelatedness, especially in this year of hope — especially in this year focusing on creation,” Attea said.
In Prior Lake, St. Michael and the Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center have invited a member of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community to speak to pilgrims as they gather at Spring Lake Park for prayer and song before traveling to the retreat center for a children’s program and social time.
“Pope Francis called the Church to be pilgrims of hope for creation, so this is a response to that,” said Secular Franciscans’ Our Lady of Consolation Fraternity minister Mary Higgins, who is organizing the event. “It just seems like this is the moment to do something like this.”
Deep roots, abundant branches
The roots of the Catholic call to steward creation stretches back through the centuries. In the 1200s, St. Francis of Assisi focused attention on the natural world with his canticle, which praises God by shining light on various elements of creation.
Focus within the Catholic Church on caring for creation and each other has grown in recent years. In the 1970s, Blessed Pope Paul VI called out environmental degradation as part of “a wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family.” In 2001, St. John Paul II noted that by exploiting the Earth, “humanity has disappointed God’s expectations” and expressed support for an “ecological conversion” to reestablish human harmony with nature. Pope Benedict XVI also encouraged greater care for the environment. And Pope Francis, in both “Laudato Si’” and his 2023 apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum,” described in detail how humans have harmed the Earth and called on Catholics to renew their commitment to caring for creation and for each other.
Today, Pope Leo XIV continues the call. In a June message, he referred to environmental justice as an “urgent need,” noting that in “a world where the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution, care for creation becomes an expression of our faith and humanity.”
Pilgrimage leaders underscore the spiritual dimensions of creation care.
“It’s not just a political issue,” Novak said. “Conserve water, clean up pollution — that’s part of caring for creation, but it’s really deeper. It’s like hurting an aspect of God to not care for creation.”
To honor and care
Organizers hope the pilgrimages will help Catholics better appreciate the gift of creation and be inspired to do what they can to take care of it.
“We’re doing this to honor, but we’re also doing it to say we honor — but we also take care of — our common home,” Sister Kathleen said. “we’re hoping that people will have a greater sense of what the Church teaches about our connection to our common home. … that it’s ours to bring peace and interconnectedness and relationship with all of what is.”
Hoff is a member of the planning committee for a care of creation pilgrimage being hosted by St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake and St. Jude of the Lake in Mahtomedi.
PILGRIMAGES OF HOPE FOR CREATION
Lumen Christi, St. Paul
Sept. 6, after parish block party and 4:30 p.m. Mass
Start: Urban Academy, 1668 Montreal Ave.
Contact: Margaret George, margaretgeorge11@gmail.com
St. Frances Cabrini / St. Albert the Great, Minneapolis
Sept. 13, 10 a.m.-noon
Start: St. Frances Cabrini, 1500 Franklin Ave. SE, Minneapolis
Contact: Suzanne Reedy, smreedy91@gmail.com
St. Catherine University / Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet
Sept. 19, 3-5 p.m.
Start: St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul
Contact: Anne Attea, amattea428@stkate.edu or Sisters of St. Joseph Sister Sharon Howell, smhowell502@stkate.edu
St. Mary of the Lake / St. Jude of the Lake, White Bear Lake
Sept. 14, 1-3 p.m.
Start: Tamarack Nature Center, White Bear Township, 5287 Otter Lake Road
Contact: Kathryn Lien, klien@stmarys-wbl.org
St. Michael, Prior Lake / Franciscan Retreats and Spirituality Center
Sept. 21, 2-4 p.m.
Start: Spring Lake Regional Park, Prior Lake, 15851 Skuya Drive NW
Contact: Mary Higgins, mjgh5174@gmail.com
St. Timothy, Blaine
Sept. 27, 9 a.m. (program starts at 10 a.m.)
Start: Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park, 9750 Egret Blvd. NW
Contact: Cindy Novak, cnovak@churchofsttimothy.com
St. Joseph, Red Wing
Oct. 5, 1–4 p.m.
Start: Colvill Park, Red Wing, 507 Nymphara Lane
Contact: Ann Wildenborg, parish@stjosephredwing.org
Lumen Christi / Gichitwaa Kateri
Details to come
Pax Christi, Eden Prairie
Details to come
PILGRIMAGE PRAYER
God in Heaven,
As we begin our journey today, we pray that You will accept the efforts we make on
this pilgrimage. We offer it in praise of You and with love for all that You have created.
Be our companion along the way, our guide at the crossroads, our strength in weariness, our defense in danger, our shelter in heat and cold, our light in darkness, our comfort in discouragement.
Open our hearts to everything that we encounter, to see You in our human brothers and sisters and in every being which You have made, for all things speak of You. Help us to understand Your will and to follow it with courage, confidence, and joy.
We pray that, with Your grace and guidance, we will share Your Good News with every creature and become agents of reconciliation and healing for all of Creation.
May our witness be a leaven of authentic hope, the harbinger of the new heavens and the new earth which You have in store for us. Help us to remember that this pilgrimage is just one step on our journey to You.
– Marilyn Kott, published in the Pilgrims of Hope for Creation Pilgrimage Planning Toolkit
