Interview: Cheyenne Johnson, who will make 3,000-mile trek on 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

The U.S. bishops' National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is back in 2025, with young adult “perpetual pilgrims” once again making a cross-country journey by wheel and foot to bring the Eucharist to the people. The sole route this year, named for St. Katharine Drexel, will depart from Indianapolis on Sunday, May 18, and arrive in Los Angeles on June 20, ahead of the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Nate Tinner-Williams sat down with Cheyenne Johnson, a Black Catholic pilgrim who works as the campus minister at Butler University in Indiana, to discuss her preparations for the upcoming spiritual journey.

(Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Nate Tinner-Williams: Can you share with me a little bit about your faith background and also your cultural background?

Cheyenne Johnson: I grew up in a Baptist family. I'm from Florida originally, and we'd go to church multiple times a week. So I really grew up with a relationship with the Lord and was just really into my faith growing up. 

As I got a little bit older, we started moving around more and I questioned different things that were happening in my faith and what I really believed. In Indiana, I was in middle school and we started going to a church that I didn't necessarily love. That was kind of the point when, you know, you're a kid and you fake being sick so you don't have to go to church, but then you have to be sick all day so that they buy it. So I was doing that but I was also starting to search for the truth. 

Ultimately, I had some friends who were Catholic and they would talk about different things. What really intrigued me was Ash Wednesday. Then I just started looking up Catholicism, like what the beliefs are and what I believed. Ultimately, I was directed to read John 6 and received a gift of faith to know that it was true. So I just had this belief in the Eucharist and was like, “If this is true, the Catholic Church has to be true.” 

NTW: Amen.

CJ: I was in seventh or eighth grade at that point and I came into the Church my freshman year of college. So, it's been about seven years now. I'm the only Catholic in my immediate family. 

Culturally, I grew up in Florida for my first eight years, but I moved a lot. So I lived in California and Arizona before coming to Indiana. I grew up in, honestly, very White communities. I didn't really notice it a lot growing up because it was a very normal thing for me. There were always maybe a couple of Black families at school and stuff, but it wasn't really until I moved to Indiana that there were more Black people around. I think I started to realize I grew up kind of in these different places and didn't have as much cultural background, I guess. So that was really hard for me because I started being called an “Oreo” at that point. I had never faced discrimination before that.

It's crazy when it starts happening, because it was other people who look like me that it was mainly coming from. But yeah, it was just a lot of learning who I am, who other people are. It's been a really beautiful thing.

NTW: Thank you for sharing that. We share a couple of things in common there. 

So, just to clarify, though: You pretty much decided you wanted to become Catholic in middle school, but you waited until college to make it happen.

CJ: Yes. I told my mom maybe when I was like eighth grade and she was like, “No.” So I just waited. Looking back, I can understand it. I think if I'd been in that situation too, I'd be like, “No, I'm not helping you do this.”

NTW: It makes me think of the story of Servant of God Thea Bowman, how she converted when she was like nine or something, but her parents were like, "Yeah, go for it." Which is kind of crazy. Like, that’s elementary school.

CJ: Yeah. You think about things like that and it's beautiful what God can do in people's lives and their calling at different times.

NTW: Amen. 

NTW: So on the topic of pilgrimage, the American Catholic scholar Phil Cousineau calls pilgrimage the simultaneous movement of the feet and the soul. With that quote in mind, what does the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage mean for you?

CJ: That’s a really beautiful way of describing it. I think when we talk about pilgrimage, we think of the apostles and their interactions with our Lord, of traveling with him, of just doing life with him. Doing normal things of life, but being with Jesus.

So when I think of pilgrimage, it’s just like a way of living that out now, you know? I get to travel over 3,000 miles with the Blessed Sacrament. And the goal of this is to bring hope and to bring prayer, to bring Jesus in a very physical way to people. But it’s also just being able to do everyday things with him. 

Obviously, I haven't experienced it yet, but I think of being in the van and going through normal kinds of days, of having all different kinds of emotions, and seeing people, interacting in different communities. That's something that really stands out to me about pilgrimage. We're physically traveling with him, but it's also in our hearts. Being able to carry the intentions of others with us across this country will be really beautiful.

NTW: I actually didn't know there was a van involved. That's an interesting image. So with last year’s pilgrimage, I originally thought everybody was literally walking across the country, but then I did learn that's not happening. But everyone is in a van together?

CJ: Yes and no. So we're not walking the entire way. It's around 3,300 miles and I think it comes to about six weeks. I did the math once and it's like 100 miles a day; I could not walk 100 miles a day for six weeks. But last year, they got these converted 15-passenger vans and I think they took a couple of rows out. So there's a tabernacle that's built into the vans now. 

NTW: Wow.

CJ: And there’s a monstrance on top of the van. We'll have adoration while we're in there, but a lot of times in between stops, I think there are driving segments, you know? We'll have the opening Mass in Indy and then we go like straight to Illinois, driving. So we'll have that time in the van with Jesus, but when we're actually in cities and doing the events, we'll be doing processions and going to different churches and things like that. So, there's still a lot of walking, but yeah.

NTW: So what do you think is important about making the Eucharist visible to the people in this way, especially given the present social climate in America?

CJ: You know, we're in the Jubilee Year of Hope right now, and I think bringing Jesus to people is just that way of bringing hope, the reminder that Jesus remains with us. I think also, coming out of the Triduum and now we're in the Easter season, it's that reminder: “I'll remain with you always.” He left us his body, blood, soul, and divinity to bring us hope, to bring us strength, and provide the unity of being the body of Christ, receiving the body of Christ, and being together in his name. So, I think it's really important, especially with different things going on. 

One of the emphases of this route is to bring hope to people. I know one of the stops is Wichita, Kansas, the origin of the recent flight that crashed in Washington, D.C. So going there and just being able to pray with the community is important, because that's a lot of hurt. And then even going to the Los Angeles area, where all the wildfires were happening. 

NTW: That's incredible. What are some of the other places you're looking forward to going on this pilgrimage?

CJ: I'm really excited for everything. It’s funny because the route will go up and down. A lot of our time is spent in the South. I think we'll be in Texas for a couple of weeks and I'm very excited to be there, visiting different communities. There's also a stop at the Shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother that I'm really excited about. Plus I know we're going to a parish that St. Katharine Drexel—I don't know if she founded it or if there's just a connection.

NTW: I think she paid for the founding of it.

CJ: Yes. I'm really excited to see the beauty of Catholicism in America, too, because when we think of the Catholic Church, a lot of times we think of Italy or Rome or St. Peter’s or the big pilgrimage sites like Lourdes and Fatima. But I look forward to seeing the beauty of Catholicism in America, and these Americans on the way to sainthood, and how the Church in America is so beautiful and so vast.

NTW: There's so much diversity there that we don't think about, right?

CJ: Yeah, it’s also one of the important parts of the pilgrimage, that we're going to all these different communities. Even compared to last year, we're going to be with, for example, more Eastern-rite churches and getting to experience those liturgies, too. Showing that deeper connectedness will be really beautiful.

NTW: Oh! Before I became Catholic a little over five years ago, I was considering becoming Orthodox.. Then for several months, I was in an Eastern Catholic parish. So yeah, recognizing that diversity is important. And I didn't realize that was a new thing this year. That's awesome.

CJ: I know at the National Eucharistic Congress last year,, they had a Syro-Malabar liturgy, right? I think there's always been that underlying work of the unity of the Catholic Church in America.

NTW: Absolutely. 

NTW: I know you mentioned St. Katharine Drexel earlier, and of course the route is named after her. She gave so much money to really make American Catholicism what it is, especially with the African-American community. So, I'm wondering if you have any connection with her, a devotion or or anything that might connect you to her specifically in relation to this pilgrimage.

CJ: I'd heard of St. Katharine before, but honestly didn't know a whole lot about her. But when we found out the name of the route was the Drexel Route, there was the immediate urge to ask her to intercede for us. And to really look into her mission, the amount of work she did in serving underserved communities in the United States, building these missions in predominantly Black areas and Native American communities. 

So I’ve definitely gotten closer to her the last couple months, just asking her to intercede for us and praying for open hearts and open minds to be able, just as we enter into these places, to see the beauty of Catholicism there.

NTW: Wonderful. Is there anything else you'd like to share about how you're preparing for the pilgrimage and what you're looking forward to?

CJ: Sure. It's kind of a twofold: the spiritual preparations and the physical preparations. Just spending a lot of time with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It's been great, too, just collecting prayer intentions. We have an online form but also, lots of my friends have these little prayer journals they’re writing in so I can carry their intentions with me. U

I’m preparing my heart for the Lord to do beautiful things this summer, going on pilgrimage with him. Really, just being with Jesus for that long every day, I'm just so excited about it. I know this is an opportunity that probably will never happen again, so I'm looking forward to it. 

Also, just practicing. I got a lot of tips on how to deal with the walking and the standing, like going on walks for like three hours a day. I was like, “I don't have time for that,” but I've been trying to just walk more and spend more time on my feet. I just got my shoes, so I'm feeling ready. We're just under a month away.

NTW: It's almost here.

CJ: I know. It’s so exciting.

NTW: Well, thank you so much for chatting with me and sharing your story. I'll be praying for you.

CJ: Thank you, I'll be praying for you too.

Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.

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