About Modern Catholic Pilgrim

We work to prepare pilgrims, get them to holy sites in the United States, and expand a hospitality network to care for those pilgrims as they journey.

Modern Catholic Pilgrim aims to deepen faith and build community across the United States through walked pilgrimage in the Catholic tradition.

We envision our society transformed by geographic pilgrimage and biblical hospitality into a society more closely mirroring the Kingdom of God.

OUR MISSION

“For the Church, pilgrimages, in all their multiple aspects, have always been a gift of grace."

—Pope St. John Paul II

Walked Pilgrimage

Thousands of people travel across the world for large-scale pilgrimages each year, most popularly to the Camino de Santiago. Yet, there are holy sites all over the world, many in our own backyards. 

Modern Catholic Pilgrim brings the pilgrimage back to the basics: setting a (holy) destination and bringing prayerful intentions along the journey there. In this way, we reframe the idea of pilgrimage as something only available in a far-off land and create opportunities for everyone to experience the fruits of deepening faith and building community through pilgrimage.

OUR FOCUSES

Biblical Hospitality

Jesus told the disciples, “Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there” (Luke 9:3-4). For our multi-day pilgrimages, we strive to incorporate this biblical hospitality: our pilgrims do not carry tents and sleeping bags nor rely on a support vehicle to do so, but instead trust in the generosity of hosts coordinated by MCP to receive them along the journey. In this way, hosts and pilgrims alike grow from the opportunity to encounter the stranger and grow in community and relationship.

Our Team

  • Will Peterson, Founder

    will@moderncatholicpilgrim.com

    Will experienced firsthand radical Catholic hospitality on trips to Iowa and North Dakota during college during which he recognized that American Catholicism contains a multitude of people willing to open their doors to travelers. A pilgrimage to Rome for Pope Francis’s first Easter while an undergraduate stirred the first thoughts of a pilgrimage ministry as he felt the immense power of a physical journey of faith shared with others. He has been a speaker at Catholic and pilgrimage-related conferences; a writer for academic, diocesan, and lay publications; and a guest of various Catholic media outlets.

  • Father Christopher Iwancio, OFM Cap, Chaplain

    Contact

    Father Iwancio is a member of the Western American Province of the Capuchin Franciscans who was ordained in 2015 and is currently assigned as Chaplain at St. Francis High School in La Canada, CA, which is just outside of Pasadena. For a number of years, he has been interested in pilgrimages, having chaperoned a number of them with young people as well as eventually walking the Camino in Spain. As part of his doctoral dissertation, he studied the influence of pilgrimage on young people.

The Project is Born

In March 2017, two friends set out to walk the 75 miles from Lexington, KY to the Abbey of Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery famous as Thomas Merton's residence. Along the way, Will Peterson and David Cable spent two nights with hosts coordinated by Catholic parishes and one night at an interfaith homeless shelter. This pilgrimage, supported by Religion News Service and culminating with an interview with a monk who had Merton as his novice master and spiritual director, sparked a realization and a call for Will and David. There was enormous fruit in the walk, the community, the prayer, the destination, and the hospitality of the hosts along the way. And so, the project that would become Modern Catholic Pilgrim was born.

OUR ORIGINS

Board of Directors

David Cable, Co-Founder
and Board Chair

Eagle Scout with experience backpacking throughout North and South America. Realized powerful lessons in humility and hospitality through traveling with others in unfamiliar territory. Encountered God’s glory within the wilderness of His creation. Taught social studies and religion for two years at a high-poverty parochial school in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Witnessed the strength and generosity of a tight-knit and generous community within a poverty-stricken area. Currently, working from Minneapolis, MN in research and sales for a prominent software company.

Cort Peters,
Vice-Chair

An alumnus of the University of Notre Dame, he completed the university's ACE teaching program before spending three years in the Congregation of Holy Cross's seminary. From there, Cort has spent time as a principal of multiple Catholic schools and, having received his Master's in Sport Performance and Psychology, now counsels athletes at all levels on how to sustain growth in their respective sports. His counsel extends to pilgrims as well. He is a retreat leader and spiritual director as well as the co-founder of Abba Father Institute and Play Like A Champion Today San Diego.

Anthony J. Petz,
Secretary/Treasurer

A native of Detroit, Anthony moved to San Diego in 2014. His first pilgrimage experience was a 32-day/500-mile trek along the historic El Camino Real, visiting eleven of the twenty-one California missions (starting at Mission San Diego de Alcalá, in San Diego and ending at Mission San Antonio de Padua, northwest of Jolon). Anthony currently works as a CPA in San Diego. His spiritual heroes include San Junipero Serra, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, and Blessed Solanus Casey. Siempre adelante! Verso l'alto! Blessed be God in all His Designs!