Lisle’s Chesterton Academy of the Holy Family Students Make Pilgrimage to Rome

This story was written by Kielce Gussie and Fabrizio Peloni at Vatican News

Click HERE to read the full story. Excerpts about Chesterton are featured below.

Chesterton Academy students from across the U.S. kicked off a 10-day pilgrimage to Italy with Pope Leo XIV’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square March 18.

About 240 students from the Chesterton Schools Network, which includes over 70 classical, Catholic high schools in the U.S. and abroad, are taking part in the trip, visiting churches and pilgrimage sites in Rome, Florence and Assisi.

Nora Kennedy, a student from the Chesterton Academy of the Holy Family in Illinois, described being in Rome as “the best experience” of her life.

The Chesterton Rome Pilgrimage takes place each year and brings high school upperclassmen from the network’s classical schools across the United States to the Eternal City.

For Kennedy, the pope’s Wednesday general audience was a particularly special moment.

“Seeing (the pope) go by was so cool (and) hearing him address us in English — this I just can’t even put into words yet how impactful this has all been,” she said.

This feeling is one that her classmate, Konstantinos Karnezis, shared. “Being here has honestly been such a blessing. It’s something that I’ve honestly looked forward to ever since my freshman year.”

Kennedy describes her experience studying at a Chesterton Academy as life-changing.

“My favorite thing about Chesterton is that faith is at the center of everything that we do — from daily Mass, confession, adoration, but then also in my friendships and the way that Christ is at the center of all of those,” she said.

The school is centered on three types of formation — intellectual, character and spiritual. Students study great works by foundational authors, such as Homer, Plato, Dante, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis of Assisi and, of course, G.K. Chesterton.

“I love the classical curriculum and how it teaches me how to think and how to articulate my thoughts,” Kennedy said, noting that she believes this will serve her in whatever settings throughout her life.

Faith plays a central role in the overall growth of the students at the Chesterton schools.

“All my classmates are oriented towards Christ and bringing me closer to him, and I do the same,” Kennedy said. This shared focus on faith and prayer, she added, deepened their friendships.