Five-day, 70+ mile pilgrimage begins at Rosary Cathedral and brings Walk for Vocations to Bowling Green and Findlay for the first time
The Diocese of Toledo announces a new route for its third annual Walk for Vocations, a five-day, 70+ mile walking pilgrimage across northwest Ohio offered in prayer and sacrifice for an increase in vocations to the diocesan priesthood.
Msgr. Tad Oxley, Fr. David Kidd and Fr. Joseph Mominee will once again walk the entire route September 27 through October 1, with Catholics from throughout the Diocese invited to join them for all or part of the way. The Walk for Vocations began in 2024 when these three priests undertook a 70+ mile pilgrimage through the Diocese. Inspired by historic walking pilgrimages such as the Camino de Santiago and Via Francigena, the Walk combines physical sacrifice, prayer and public witness encouraging and supporting men to discern a call to the diocesan priesthood.
This year’s pilgrimage will begin at Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral in Toledo at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, September 27, marking a new starting point for the annual walk. A crowd of pilgrims is expected to gather at the Cathedral and accompany the priests as they begin the first 11.37-mile leg of the journey to St. Joseph Catholic Church in Maumee. The new route will also bring the Walk for Vocations through Bowling Green and Findlay for the first time.
Pilgrims will arrive at St. Thomas More University Parish in Bowling Green at approximately 5:30 p.m. Monday, September 28, where Mass will be offered upon arrival. The following morning, Tuesday, September 29, the pilgrimage will depart St. Thomas More at 9:00 a.m. and walk through the campus of St. Aloysius Catholic Parish before continuing toward Holy Family Catholic Church in North Baltimore.
On Wednesday, September 30, pilgrims will walk from North Baltimore to St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Parish in Findlay, arriving at approximately 5:00 p.m. for Mass.
The following morning, Thursday, October 1, at 8:30 a.m., the priests and fellow pilgrims will depart St. Michael for the final and longest leg of the pilgrimage: 17.58 miles from Findlay to the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey. The pilgrimage is expected to conclude at approximately 5:30 p.m. with Mass (6:00 p.m.) in Carey.
The theme is “Each Step a Prayer for More Priests.”
Posted September 25, 2026 at 12:27 pm