Becoming The John Paul II Shrine

Christian Sanctuaries always and everywhere have been or have sought to be signs of God, of his entering into human history.

-St. John Paul II, Allocution to Rectors of Sanctuaries

Earlier this year, the Saint John Paul II Shrine was designated as a national shrine by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Coming from the Latin scrinium, which describes a chest or case used to store religious objects, a shrine is now generally understood as a sacred space where pilgrims can come to worship God, contemplate His mysteries, or venerate a particular holy figure.

According to our Executive Director Patrick Kelly, the Saint John Paul II National Shrine is

…a place dedicated to the worship of God who became man in Jesus Christ. It is a place of pilgrimage, where the faithful and all people of good will can come to seek the face of Christ in the spirit of, and through the intercession of, Saint John Paul II. Through the shrine’s liturgy and life of prayer, as well as its programs of education and Christian formation, pilgrims will be drawn more deeply into Saint John Paul II’s love for God and for man.

This shrine is a response to Saint John Paul II’s call for a new evangelization. It seeks to be a place of genuine encounter with God that leads to a renewal of individuals, families and society.

As the premier site dedicated to Saint John Paul II in the United States, we are entrusted with the mission of developing and promoting popular devotion to him. Many will come here because of an enduring admiration for Saint John Paul II; others will be introduced to him for the first time. The shrine is here to answer the questions: “Who is Saint John Paul II?” “What does it mean to have a devotion to him?”

Some coming developments to help make this happen will be a new church, scheduled to open in 2015; a reliquary chapel; and a permanent 16,000 square foot exhibit on the life and legacy of Saint John Paul II, to be named A Gift of Love: The Life of Saint John Paul II.

St. John Paul II would not want a shrine named for him if it were just to lift up his life as an example without lifting up the hearts of the pilgrims who experience it. This is why, as Kelly states, we hope that

…pilgrims leave the shrine with the sense that they, like Saint John Paul II, are called to make a gift of themselves to God and to others. We want all pilgrims to be confident that holiness is possible in the personal and unique circumstances of their own lives.

St. John Paul II, Pray for Us!