Prior to spending a week in Germany for World Youth Day, 48 pilgrims from the Arlington Diocese traveled on a journey across Poland to learn more about Pope John Paul II and his homeland.

Kevin Bohli, director of the Office of Youth Ministry, and Father David Sharland of the Youth Apostles Institute, planned the pilgrimage while JPII was still alive in a hope to prepare the young pilgrims to meet the Pope at World Youth Day. "As it turned out, I think the pilgrimage became more popular after the death of JPII because there was so much positive press about his life," said Bohli.

The pilgrims ranged in age from 16 to 60 and came from Marymount University, St. William of York Parish, St. Michael Parish, Mary Washington College, University of Virginia, St. Charles, St. Anthony, Holy Family, and St. Andrew the Apostle. Many of the groups held parish fundraisers to help defray the cost of the pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage began in Warsaw where in the early years of his papacy, JPII celebrated great outdoor Masses before huge gatherings and provided the intellectual and moral support for the striving Solidarity movement. Next they visited Czestochowa where JPII went many times to pray to Our Lady in front of the Black Madonna icon. While at the Church of the Assumption on Aug. 13, hundreds of thousands of other pilgrims from across Poland were arriving for the Feast of the Assumption that would happen just two days later.

The Arlington pilgrims then traveled by bus to Krakow; a city where JPII spent many years of his life. The pilgrims visited the Divine Mercy Shrine where the young Karol Wojtyla often prayed on his way home from work at the quarry. They also visited Wawel Cathedral where JPII was archbishop prior to his elevation to the papacy.

A short drive outside of Krakow they visited the Shrine of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska where JPII prayed as a young child, and even as a Cardinal could occasionally be found walking through the woods in prayer. "Just knowing that I was walking on the same path as JPII was a spiritual journey in itself," said Diane McLaughlin from St. Michael Parsih in Annandale.

Nowhere was JPII’s presence stronger than in Wadowice, the town where he was born. The pilgrims visited JPII’s boyhood home which was literally 20 feet away from the church where he was baptized, confirmed, served as an altar boy and where he developed his great love for Christ and His Church.

Father Jack Peterson, chaplain at Marymount University, said, "celebrating Mass in the same church where JPII grew up was very special to me and will be one of my fondest memories of the pilgrimage."

For most of the pilgrims, this journey through Poland was a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit one of the most Catholic countries in the world, to appreciate its beauty, but to also gain an understanding of its sad history. Nowhere was that history more vivid than in their visit the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz and the site of St. Maximilian Kolbe’s death.

"To walk, to listen, to reflect and to pray on the hallowed soil of Auschwitz and Birkenau was both exhausting and moving for me," said Father Sharland. "As we pilgrims prayed and sang the Divine Mercy Chaplet on the railroad tracks in the center of the Birkenau Camp, I knew that our prayers that day somehow met up with the prayers of our brothers and sisters who died there over a half century ago. And we were all changed by that."

The pilgrims were amazed at the amount of Catholic heritage throughout the country of Poland. "Poland provided me with a strong sense of God's active presence in the world," added UVA student Christine Elliot. "To be where God raised up John Paul the Great, St. Faustina, and St. Maximilian Kolbe as instruments of His Mercy gave me an undeniable conviction that He is with us, loves us, and wants to change our lives."

"I thought the journey left each pilgrim with a clear understanding of how many of the hardships of Karol Wojtyla’s early life in Poland formed him into John Paul the Great," said Bohli. "Through our hardships, God can build greatness."

Arrangements for this diocesan pilgrimage were made through JMJ Tours of Springfield. Plans are already being discussed for the 2008 World Youth Day pilgrimage to Sydney, Australia.