Welcome to the Catholic Exchange Travel Channel sponsored by Corporate Travel Service. We are humbled to have the opportunity to further serve the Catholic community by developing this travel channel as another resource for Catholics and, in a particular way, Catholic travelers. Each month we will publish enlightening articles on a range of topics including Catholic travel destinations, Catholic holy sites, and Catholic pilgrimages. We have many enthusiastic priests, religious, and biblical scholars who are eager to share their travel experiences with a particular emphasis on the Catholic historical significance of many destinations and holy sites.
Let me first introduce our company, Corporate Travel Service, which will be the sponsor of this travel channel. Founded in 1969 by Joseph DiFranco, the company has become a leading provider of individual and group travel. Mr. DiFranco’s son, David DiFranco, and son-in-law, John Hale, joined the business in the late 1990’s and assist in advancing the company’s service to the Catholic community. As a Catholic family business with more than 35 years of experience, we have grown to have more than 35 employees, all who share in our vision to serve travelers through our educational tours, business travel and Catholic Pilgrimages. We are humbled to be the instruments through whom God has bestowed hundreds of thousands of blessings on travelers making special trips throughout the United States, Europe and beyond.
We are pleased to be collaborating with Catholic Exchange to host the Catholic Exchange and Catholic Scripture Study Cruise with guest speakers Patrick Madrid, Mark Shea, Steve Ray, Fr. Patrick Winslow, Gail Buckley, and the Catholic Exchange team. (Click here to read more.) We invite you to join us for this exciting cruise to Alaska to deepen and enliven your faith in the midst of some of the most fantastic and awe-inspiring scenery in the world. You will, no doubt, see and experience the majesty of God on this cruise. Please join us!
While we hope that the information that you learn on this channel will inspire you to join us on one of our pilgrimages, it is prayer that through our articles and information on this channel, you will be able to deepen your faith life by learning about the holiest sites in the world and their impact on people today. Learning about these places can and will lead you to learn about Him who came into this world to redeem each of us. Suddenly and amazingly, mere places and events will be transformed for you into our salvation history, as handed down to us by Holy Scripture and Catholic tradition.
It is our mission through this travel channel to help you learn about the places where God has touched us, His people, here on earth through Christ Himself, His Apostles, Disciples and Saints. As Steve Ray has written in Lay Witness Magazine about sacred and holy ground, “Israel is known as the Holy Land . . . where God walked and where his footprints lead us back to the very history of salvation itself.”
By visiting this travel channel over the coming months, you will walk through the site of our Lord’s birth in Israel, have an insider visit to the Vatican Library, experience the Marian apparitions of Catherine Labouré at Rue de Bac in France, and witness how the experience of a fellow pilgrim can transform you and your own faith life.
Thank you for visiting this new travel channel. We look forward to serving you on this site and on future pilgrimages and tours. May God bless you.
John Hale
