Nearby pilgrimage offers church art, history for youth

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
 
A dozen Carroll County high school students participated in a pilgrimage visiting seven religious sites, learning about the architecture, history and religious art at each location. The group wasn’t gone for weeks or days – they were gone from home for less than 12 hours.
 
Director of Evangelization for St. John Paul II Parish in Carroll, EmmaLee Miklosovic, was inspired to organize a trip within Carroll County following brainstorming with religious education directors in her area. She said there were discussions about a deanery-wide pilgrimage, but the group was unable to arrange it for summer 2024.
 
“I still wanted to do something,” Miklosovic said, acknowledging the close proximity of the historic churches provided a unique opportunity for the parish youth.
 
Sites selected for the pilgrimage included:

• Mount Carmel Church, Mount Carmel, built in 1907
• Sacred Heart Church, Templeton, built in 1883
• St. Bernard Church, Breda, built in 1888
• St. John the Baptist Church, Arcadia, built in 1921
• Holy Angels Church, Roselle, built in 1874
• St. Mary, Willey, built in 1911
• Domus Trinitatis spiritual renewal and retreat center, Willey

 Pieta at Our Lady of Mount CarmelDiocesan seminarian Garrett Hugeback of Wall Lake, assigned to the parish for the summer along with Deacon Jake Rosenmeyer of Wesley, said he was on board to help with the county-wide pilgrimage. Hugeback said he accompanied Miklosovic on a pre-pilgrimage drive to determine driving distances between churches.
 
With personal history in the area, an appreciation of the churches and some knowledge of church architecture, the seminarian volunteered to assist with the county-wide pilgrimage.
 
“I find a lot of beauty in these small, rural churches,” Hugeback explained.
 
Miklosovic said the two “mapped out big things we wanted to point out” to the teens during the seven-site pilgrimage throughout the county.
 
“I think it’s important to teach and catechize through sacred art. If we have that at our disposal, we should take advantage of that,” the evangelization director explained, noting they would point out items including stained glass windows, ambos, side altars and what it means to have a devotion to the saint of a particular church. “We took all that and tried to point it towards the Mass and the Eucharist.”
 
The pilgrimage teens, along with Miklosovic, Hugeback and Deacon Rosenmeyer, started their day attending 7 a.m. Mass together at Holy Spirit Church in Carroll before climbing on the Kuemper Catholic School bus for the trip. Miklosovic said most of the pilgrims were Kuemper High School students with a few homeschool students joining them.
 
“The group we had was students who have taken a lot of initiative in their faith outside of school and outside of youth events,” the evangelization director said. “These are kids who already have a strong devotion to the Eucharist, going to adoration every day. They are passionate about their faith and were looking for an opportunity to go deeper.”
 
Pilgrimage organizers also planned a “scavenger hunt” of items to locate at the sites. Between stops, the scavenger hunt items were discussed while on the bus.
 
Church history
Pietra shrine on Mount Carmel groundsVisiting the pilgrimage sites, Hugeback was able to share some church history with the teens. He said he pointed out items that were used in the Mass at the time churches were built. “(Our Lady of Mount Carmel) had an old missal from before Vatican II – we showed them this is part of the tradition of a Latin Mass. In Templeton, there were some nice fiddleback vestments displayed on a stand. They have old vestments with images on the back for when (the priest) would have faced the high altar and different styles we aren’t used to with different ornamentation,” the seminarian said.
 
Notable fixtures in some of churches included the 15 original mysteries of the rosary depicted in the stained glass windows of the Arcadia church. (The luminous mysteries were added in 2002 by St. John Paul II.)
 
“I think they teach us a lot about how we live in a different time in the church. We have a beautiful faith and we were handed on a faith by people who cared to build up these physical churches and gave their lives for these churches,” Hugeback said.
 
With his family history rooted in Carroll County, the seminarian said he enjoyed sharing how his relatives helped build the churches in the areas visited and the effect it had upon him and his vocation.
 
“In Willey, I like to point out that my great-great-grandpa donated one of the Stations (of the Cross) and I like to talk about what that means,” he said.

 Photo gallery

In addition to touring the rural churches, the pilgrimage included stops at some of the church cemeteries. The seminarian pointed out that praying for the dead is “an important part of the Catholic tradition.” Also, Hugeback shared that he has relatives buried in the Roselle and Willey cemeteries.
 
Youth impressions
The students left the trip with a deeper appreciation of the Catholic churches in their area and for the traditions of the faith.
 
“I especially liked Sacred Heart Church in Templeton,” Kuemper High School junior Simon Pietig shared. “They have a beautiful statue of St. Michael the Archangel, who happens to be my confirmation saint. At one point in that church, I recall having a conversation about how we can come to know God through beauty.”
 
Pietig said he also appreciated learning more about saints and seeing depictions of the saints in the churches’ stained glass windows.

 Domus Trinitatis outside of WilleyLogan Rial, Kuemper High School senior said he could make the connection between the Mass and the structures visited on the pilgrimage. 

“What really stood out to me on this trip was that these churches were built to show us what’s really happening – Jesus’ sacrifice made present and heaven and earth colliding during the Mass,” Rial said.
 
Participants were encouraged to “prayerfully reflect” upon what they saw at the different locations, Miklosovic said. The students’ insight and faith impressed the trip organizers.
 
“Through that they came up with really beautiful things to say how the Lord teaches us through art and how it speaks to the importance of our faith,” she said.
 
“You could tell the kids were praying with what they were seeing on the pilgrimage – to enter into these spaces and dwell in the house of the Lord and let him dwell in them,” Hugeback shared.