Locations & Cultural pilgrimages
Formation Through Pilgrimage
Every cultural outing on the Catholic Worldview Fellowship is a pilgrimage, a purposeful journey to a place where God has acted in history and where faith produced culture. Fellows experience Catholic culture and history firsthand, walking in the footsteps of saints, leaders, and martyrs who shaped the Church and the world.
Germany
Outing 1 Kevelaer
The journey begins and ends with pilgrimage to Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted—one of the largest Marian shrines in northwestern Europe. Fellows celebrate Mass in the candle chapel and entrust their time of formation to Our Lady.
Outing 2 Xanten
Students encounter a 2,000 year arc in Western civilization: from ruins of the Roman Empire to the 20th century witness of Blessed Karl Leisner and Cardinal von Galen in the medieval St. Victor’s Cathedral.
Outing 3 Trier
Germany’s oldest city and seat of Constantine the Great. Here fellows visit the relic of the Lord’s Tunic and have Mass at the tomb of St. Matthias.
Outing 4 Cologne
Fellows tour the historic Cologne Cathedral, venerate the relic of the three wise men, and visit the convent of Edith Stein.
Outing 5 Aachen
Students tour Aachen Cathedral, Charlemagne’s coronation church, where mosaics cover the ceiling and the emperor’s throne still stands.
Italy
Day 1 St. Peter’s Square
Fellows arrive in Rome and gather in St. Peter’s Square for an evening formation talk that sets the spiritual context for the week.
Day 2 Catacombs &
St. Paul’s Outside the Walls
Fellows descend into the oldest Christian cemetery in the world, then visit the tomb of St. Paul.
Day 3 Pope Leo
Fellows visit Pope Leo XIV at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.
Day 4 Historic Churches
Fellows spend the day visiting churches in the historic city center, encountering the lives of Catholic saints, whose holiness shaped the culture of Rome and the world.
Day 5 The Vatican Museums
Fellows learn how the Catholic faith did not flee from classical culture but baptized it. The visit concludes in the Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo’s vision of creation, fall, and redemption is depicted.
Day 6 Holy Stairs,
St. John Lateran
& St. Mary Major
Fellows venerate relics of the Holy Stairs, the Passion of Christ, the table of the last supper, heads of saints Peter and Paul, and the crib of our Lord.