News

The Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC will host the official World Youth Day Cross and Icon on Saturday, August 25, 2018 as part of the international procession in advance of the World Youth Day event in Panama this coming January.

On Oct. 18, 2016, the Saint John Paul II National Shrine welcomed two members of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy to the staff of the Shrine. Sister Donata Farbaniec and Sister Gaudia Skass, both from their order’s house in Kraków, Poland, will work with our many pilgrimage groups and share the powerful message of Divine Mercy. As part of their work, the sisters will also lead the Prayer at the Hour of Mercy followed by the Chaplet to Divine Mercy at 3 p.m. every day.

Two beautiful liturgies, Eucharistic adoration, moving testimonials, and the unveiling of a new statue were some of the highlights of the celebration of the feast day of St. John Paul II on October 22, 2016.

A new landmark exhibit on Thomas More, the English martyr whom St. John Paul II declared the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians, opened at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine on Sept. 16, 2016. The exhibit, God’s Servant First: The Life and Legacy of Thomas More, explores the life of the former Lord Chancellor of England who was executed during King Henry VIII’s reign for refusing to recognize the King’s self-declared supremacy over the Church in England.

Mother Teresa referred to February 3, 1986 as the happiest day of her life. On that day, Pope John Paul II visited the slums of Calcutta, where she and her fellow Missionaries of Charity cared for the poorest of the poor: the discarded and lonely people left to die in the streets. Mother Teresa clearly rejoiced in St. John Paul II’s great love for her people. His every action was of a loving and encouraging father. The Missionaries’ home for the dying, he said, “proclaims the profound dignity of every human person,” a dignity that “comes from God our Creator in whose image we are all made.”