Catholic Roundup

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For ten days in February, Fr. Bill Holtzinger led members of his parish from St. Anthony’s Church in Forest Grove Oregon on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We talked about his experiences on the pilgrimage and his Pilgrim Cast podcast.

In keeping with the truism that no podcaster produces just one show, here is a listing of Father Bill’s seven podcasts. You can find them all at frbill.org .

• St. Anthony’s Podcast
• Fr. Geek
• Mysteries of the Mass
• Pilgrim Cast
• DaVinci Cast
• Children’s G.I.F.T.
• Camp On Dude

Now say that title five times quickly.

Continuing on my theme of the spiritual importance of place and sacred spaces, today I’m going to highlight just a few podcasts where priests are sharing their pilgrimages through their podcasts.

First up is Father Bill Kessler, who hosts the Technopriest and Technochurch podcasts. In November, Father Bill went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with members of his parish and his family. He shared his experiences in a short series of video podcasts from the Holy Land.

TechnoChurch#33: Technopriest in Israel Day 1
TechnoChurch#38: Technopriest in Israel Day 2
TechnoChurch#41: Technopriest in Israel, Day 3
TechnoChurch#43: Technopriest in Israel, Day 4

Father Bill Holzinger of the
St. Anthony’s Podcast and Fr. Geek’s Video Podcast has been submitting regular audio and blog reports of his parish pilgrimage to the Holy land as well. In one of Father Bill Holzinger’s podcasts from Jerusalem, one of his parishoners remarked how she was overawed to stand in the same place where Mary was visited by the angel in the annunciation. That is truly a place of great spiritual significance.

PilgrimCast #1

PilgrimCast #2

Father Jay Finelli, the Ipadre, has produced both audio and video podcasts of his travels to Medugorje and Assisi.

Finally there’s Father Roderick, who pioneered the idea of a soundseeing tour in a podcast in The Catholic Insider. He now also produces a videocast of his travels called Godspeed.  For over 3 years Father Roderick has shared a Catholic perspective on the places he has travelled including, Rome, Ireland, Georgia, Lourdes, and even my own country of Canada.

There are many other people producing sightseeing and soundseeing tours of their travels throughout the world. I think this speaks to the need for people to make pilgrimages, and of the great spiritual importance we put on places.