WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The St. John Paul II National Shrine in Northeast Washington officially opened its retreat house Aug. 26 with a Mass, a blessing and prayers invoking the intercession of St. John Paul II and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“May it (the retreat house) be a place where, under the loving gaze of St. John Paul II and with the help of Mary’s maternal love, retreatants can come to grips with the faults and sins that hold them back in their relationships with God,” prayed Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori during a dedication Mass. “May this be a place where countless retreatants learn, as did John Paul II, how to trust completely in the Providence of God.”
The facility, adjacent to the shrine, is in the former Washington Retreat House, which opened in 1932 and closed in 2024 and was operated by the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement.
Shrine officials said the retreat house — inspired by John Paul’s habit as a young priest to lead retreats out into the quiet of nature — would be “an oasis of sacred wilderness in Brookland,” the neighborhood where it is located.
An initiative of the Knights of Columbus
The newly dedicated and blessed retreat house is an initiative of the Knights of Columbus, which also operates the St. John Paul II National Shrine. Archbishop Lori is supreme chaplain of the Knights.
Originally established as the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, the shrine was dedicated in 2000, during the Great Jubilee Year, and inaugurated in 2001. In 2011, the Knights of Columbus purchased the center and renovated the structure to its present form where it offers a permanent exhibit on St. John Paul’s life and houses the Redemptor Hominis Church where Mass is offered daily, and a chapel dedicated to the Luminous Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary, where a first-class relic of John Paul is displayed.
Speaking at the dedication of the retreat house, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly — who the day before was named by Pope Leo XIV as a member of the Vatican Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life — said the facility “is located in the heart of the nation’s capital … but it is also set apart, far enough away from the hustle and bustle” of everyday life.
Noting that St. John Paul believed that Jesus “is the answer to every question,” Kelly said the retreat center would be “a place of prayer” where the faithful can “have an experience in concert with Jesus.”
Washington’s Brookland neighborhood dubbed ‘Little Rome’
The retreat house and St. John Paul II National Shrine are on Harewood Road in the Brookland section of Washington, affectionately called “Little Rome” for the many Catholic institutions located there.
Within walking distance are the Archdiocese of Washington’s St. John Paul II Seminary, the Little Sisters of the Poor’s Jeanne Jugan Residence, Capuchin College, the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family, The Catholic University of America and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
The retreat house has two floors with 20 rooms on each floor. It has a library, an oratory Eucharistic adoration chapel, large dining room, small and large meeting rooms, and other amenities. It also includes photos and other artifacts from the life of St. John Paul. Right now, the retreat house is only available for group reservations, but plans are in the works to soon offer availability to individual retreatants.
The dedication and blessing were held on the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the patroness of Poland, the birthplace of St. John Paul.
Dedication comes on feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa
“How fitting, then, that we gather on this feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa to bless and dedicate the St. John Paul II Retreat House,” Archbishop Lori said at the dedication Mass as he recalled that John Paul spoke of Our Lady of Czestochowa as “the beating heart of Poland.”
Bishop Lori noted that the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa is located in Jasna Góra (“Hill of Light”) in Poland and is a place where “where countless pilgrims learn to trust in the Providence of God.”
“While the incline of Harewood Road is hardly a mountain, our retreat house is on a bright and shining mountain, a kind of Jasna Góra, made so by this national shrine, this retreat house, and by our neighbors,” Archbishop Lori said.
That sentiment was echoed by Kelly, who also noted that the retreat house was being blessed on the feast day of Our Lady of Czestochowa and said that “John Paul dedicated his whole life to the Queen of Poland.”
“There is no better day to open this house,” Kelly said.
A mission ‘to bring souls to Christ’
Stephen White, executive director of the St. John Paul II National Shrine, noted that “we not only open a building, but consecrate a mission … to bring souls to Christ.”
He said the retreat house would “enable us to expand” on the mission of the shrine which is to help the faithful “in the work of growing in holiness, the work of becoming a saint.”
“Coming through the doors of this retreat house, many pilgrims, we hope and pray, will experience the peace of Christ,” Archbishop Lori said. “May they find here a place of quiet, a place of refuge, a place of prayer, where they can grow in all knowledge and wisdom, truth and love, where they can allow Mary to lead them more deeply into the mystery of Christ.”
Richard Szczepanowski is managing editor of the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington. This story was originally published by the Catholic Standard and distributed through a partnership with OSV News.
