Franciscan friars in middle of 300-mile trek
The plan was not to have a plan, just a destination: the Monastery of the Holy Land in Washington, D.C., sometime around the middle of July.
“We aren’t packing any food, we have hardly any money and we each just have one change of clothes,” said Fr. Mark Soehner, one of six Franciscan friars on a trek by foot from Roanoke to Washington, D.C. “Legally, we’re probably vagabonds.”
They do have a cell phone, but Soehner keeps it turned off.
“We see this as a pilgrimage,” he explained. “The idea is to live in the moment, the way our founder, St. Francis, did.”
Soehner and Fr. Ed Shea are Franciscan priests. Richard Goodin, Roger Lopez, Cliff Hennings and Joshua…
