Complete Land Package Pricing - $5800 USD double occupancy

Single occupancy available - $1100 supplemental fee (limited)  
+ International airfare (approx $1000- $1200 USD per person)

Imago Dei: Encountering Jesus through the Life and Vision of John Paul II 

An Integration Pilgrimage through Poland with Dr. Greg Bottaro & team

Kraków • Wadowice • Częstochowa • Auschwitz • Zakopane

For decades, the thought of St. John Paul II has been explored mainly by philosophers and theologians. His personalist vision—shaped by faith, philosophy, literature, and lived suffering—offered the Church a compelling understanding of the human person as deeply dignified, free, and never reducible to roles, wounds, or systems.

Today, a new question is emerging:

How does this vision speak to the psychological and emotional life of real people—to identity, suffering, trauma, freedom, conscience, relationship, and healing—without reducing the person to pathology or losing moral responsibility?

Imago Dei, an Integration Pilgrimage through Poland, stands at this threshold. This journey invites participants into the places and experiences that shaped Karol Wojtyła’s inner world, while engaging an emerging conversation: how his personalism can be faithfully applied to the emotional, psychological, and spiritual life of the human person.e human person.

Kraków: Where Anthropology Became Lived Experience

Kraków was the crucible of John Paul II’s vision. Here, Wojtyła was formed not only by philosophical study, but by art, labor, friendship, underground resistance, pastoral accompaniment, and prayer under pressure. He learned to read the human heart not as a lived drama unfolding through freedom, love, suffering, and self-gift.

This pilgrimage draws participants into that formative environment —to let it speak again into a world fragmented by reductionist views of the person, and to our very selves.

Literature, Drama, and Psychological Insight

Before becoming pope, St. John Paul II was a poet and playwright. His literary works—such as The Jeweler’s Shop, Our God’s Brother, and Radiation of Fatherhood—reveal a deep psychological insight into the human heart.

Through story and drama, Wojtyła explored how the person is revealed through relationship, how freedom unfolds through interior struggle, and how love requires choice, sacrifice, and responsibility. His poetry and plays offer a window into the inner drama of the human person, complementing his philosophical thought. This pilgrimage engages his literary voice as another path into understanding the interior life he sought to illuminate.

An Emerging Psychological Frontier

This pilgrimage explores a developing conversation: how St. John Paul II’s vision of the human person can be thoughtfully applied to the psychological and emotional life, holding together personal experience, healing, and responsibility, honoring the integration of body, soul, and spirit. Rather than offering a finished system, the pilgrimage introduces these ideas through lived experience—grounded in place, prayer, and accompaniment.

A Formation Team at the Frontier of Integration  

This journey is shaped by a group of invited guides and collaborators who are actively engaged in bringing St. John Paul II’s anthropology into conversation with contemporary psychology and the lived human experience.

• Dr. Greg Bottaro, founder of the Catholic Psych Institute, whose work explores an emerging integrative framework that brings St. John Paul II’s anthropology into therapeutic accompaniment, bridging theology, psychology, and lived human experience.

• Dr. Keith Houde, professor of psychology and scholar of St. John Paul II’s life and formation in Poland, whose work integrates John Paul II’s literary and philosophical writings with the cultural, historical, and spiritual context that shaped him, illuminating how dignity and relationship are formed through place and lived experience.

• Dr. Gerard McNicholas, whose expertise in Viktor Frankl and meaning-centered psychology offers a vital dialogue partner to St. John Paul II’s thought, particularly in relation to meaning, suffering, conscience, freedom, and moral responsibility.

Catholic Psych mentors and chaplains also accompany the pilgrimage, offering a relational and prayerful setting where real integration can take place. 

Together, this Integration Team is meant to support a pilgrimage environment where St. John Paul II’s vision of the human person is encountered not only intellectually, but personally—through place, reflection, and lived experience.

Participation of invited contributors is subject to final confirmation and contingent upon pilgrimage viability.

St. John Paul II taught that mercy is not opposed to truth, but is its most personal expression. In a world marked by trauma, fragmentation, and discouragement, his message of mercy speaks directly to both spiritual and interior healing.

This pilgrimage intentionally creates space for prayer and the sacraments, quiet reflection and silence, shared accompaniment, and thoughtful engagement with one’s own inner life—so that participants do not simply learn about John Paul II’s vision, but begin to experience its meaning within their own lives.

Who This Pilgrimage Is For

It is particularly fitting for:

• Those deeply drawn to St. John Paul II’s life and anthropology, and who wish to engage the places and experiences that formed his vision of the human person.

• Therapists, clinicians, and helping professionals seeking a Catholic vision of the inner life that honors dignity, freedom, and healing.

  Philosophers,  theologians and students interested in how John Paul II’s thought speaks not only to ideas, but to lived human experience.

• Pastors, mentors, and formation leaders longing for an integrated approach to accompaniment and formation.

• Personal seekers who wish to encounter Christ more deeply within their own questions, wounds, hopes, and calling.

• Serious pilgrims who sense that St. John Paul II’s life, thought and sanctity  still holds untapped depth for themselves and the modern world.

  
  

INCLUDED:

• Accommodations in Krakow, Częstochowa, and Zakopane

• Specialized or local certified guides throughout the duration of the pilgrimage

• Individual headsets when necessary

• English-speaking local accompaniment throughout

• Daily Mass

• Ground transportation

• Guided visit to Auschwitz

• Guided visit to the Black Madonna

• Guided visit to Zakopane (cable car tickets included)

• Group welcome dinner in a local restaurant

• Group farewell dinner in a local restaurant

• Daily breakfast and lunch or dinner

• All visits with “skip-the-line” tickets included according to the program

  
  

  Integration Package 

  Each pilgrim also receives an Integration Package, designed to support meaningful encounter before, during, and after the pilgrimage:

  • Pre-pilgrimage preparation to orient participants spiritually, psychologically, and relationally for the journey

  • Small group integration sessions during the pilgrimage, facilitated by trained mentors and chaplains

  • Opportunity for an individual one-on-one mentorship session during the pilgrimage

  • Post-pilgrimage group follow-up to support integration of the experience into daily life

  • Optional individual follow-up accompaniment, for those desiring deeper ongoing integration after returning home

  This package ensures that the pilgrimage is not only experienced, but received, processed, and integrated into one’s spiritual and personal life.

  
  

NOT INCLUDED:

• Transatlantic airfare

• Travel protection – optional and recommended

• Tips and gratuities – optional and appreciated

• Anything not mentioned above

TERMS & CONDITIONS / CANCELLATION POLICY

A $600 USD deposit per person is required to secure a place.
Please note that $200 USD of this deposit is non-refundable.

Full payment may be made at any time, but final payment is due no later than 90 days prior to departure.

Cancellation Policy (Poland Pilgrimage Only)

If a participant cancels, the following refunds apply:

• 120 days or more prior to departure:
  Refund of 100% of payments made, minus the $200 USD non-refundable portion of the deposit.

• 61–120 days prior to departure:
  Refund of 50% of the total cost, minus the $200 USD non-refundable portion of the deposit.

• 60 days or fewer prior to departure:
  No refund will be issued by Can’t Be Missed Tours.
  Participants are strongly encouraged to purchase travel protection to safeguard against unforeseen circumstances.

Minimum Group Size

This pilgrimage will operate with a minimum of 25 registered participants.
If the minimum number is not reached, the pilgrimage may be cancelled, and a full refund will be issued within five business days.

Additional Notes

Air ticket cancellations are not included in this cancellation policy, even if Can’t Be Missed Tours assists participants in purchasing tickets. Flight cancellation terms are determined solely by the individual airlines.

The itinerary is subject to change. Can’t Be Missed Tours reserves the right to modify the schedule if necessary to accommodate local conditions and maximize the use of time.