INDIANAPOLIS – A feeling of unity overwhelmed Celine Thomas as she walked in the middle of a sea of more than 50,000 pilgrims through the streets of downtown Indianapolis July 20.
Following a truck-pulled float bearing a monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament, the parishioner of Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City was among approximately 150 others from the Archdiocese of Baltimore to give public witness to their devotion to the Eucharist.
“I feel the church in the U.S. is so much alive,” Thomas said. “It feels so great to be with the whole church – the bishops, the priests, the seminarians, the sisters and the lay people. You know, this is the church – this is a great church that we are part of. We are all the same and we all love Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.”
Leading an emotional and jubilant procession that brought some to tears was Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., who has spearheaded the U.S. bishops-led three-year National Eucharistic Revival whose capstone was the National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21 in Indianapolis. The bishop was accompanied on the flower-strewn truck by Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson.
More than 100 bishops and cardinals, including Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori and Baltimore Auxiliary Bishops Adam J. Parker and Bruce A. Lewandowski, C.Ss.R., marched in procession with thousands of other Catholics.
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S., and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pope Francis’ special envoy to the congress, also participated.
Bishop Cozzens said the procession “might be the largest eucharistic procession in the country in decades.” But, in prayer during adoration at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, he also said their immense numbers were still “too small.”
“There are millions of people in our own states, in our dioceses, who don’t yet know you,” said Bishop Cozzens, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress, Inc. In his prayer, he encouraged the throngs of people kneeling in the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza to be missionaries to those who need to be brought to Jesus.
During the procession, children on parent’s shoulders or standing on the ground gave high fives to clergy who passed by. Some threw flowers into the street. Groups carried religious banners and small crucifixes. One group carried a cross filled with yellow notes bearing prayer intentions to be taken along the route.
At the very front of the procession were children dressed in white dresses and suits, who had recently received their first Communion. They carried baskets of rose petals, spreading them on the ground ahead of the Eucharist.
Immediately following the eucharistic float, leading music were a few of the “perpetual pilgrims” who had recently finished the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, an eight-week journey from four compass points of the United States with the Eucharist that culminated at the congress.
Walking with them in the Indianapolis procession was Will Peterson, whose nonprofit Modern Catholic Pilgrim had organized the pilgrimage. Behind them were Knights of Columbus, knights and dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, walking closely together, and other perpetual pilgrims from the national pilgrimage. The procession also included Catholic dancers reflecting their cultural traditions.
The float turned right down Maryland Street and then left on Meridian Street, a central Indianapolis corridor, passing storefronts, office buildings and restaurants, and curving around the Monument Circle roundabout. When it arrived at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, Archbishop Thompson and Bishop Cozzens disembarked.
Bishop Cozzens processed with the monstrance, followed by Archbishop Thompson, toward a stage at the base of the memorial, where musicians were singing the Divine Mercy Chaplet. When they reached the stage and its temporary altar, they secured the monstrance in its base for adoration and knelt before Jesus in the Eucharist.
As people made their way into the park, many knelt on the grass or the sidewalks as a soprano sang “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent.” With the hot July sun beating down on the pavement, people knelt, wept or raised their arms, or simply sat and contemplated the Blessed Sacrament.
Felician Sister Melanie Marie Bajorek of Pennsylvania marched in the eucharistic procession along with several others from her religious community. Bishop Lewandowski invited them to participate in the Eucharistic Congress with the delegation from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Bishop Lewandowski’s sibling, Sister Mary Francis Lewandowski, is a Felician based in Michigan.
Sister Melanie Marie said she felt supported in her religious vocation by many words of encouragement from the crowds along the procession route.
“They were thanking us,” she said, “It was very impressive and I was really touched – moved by the crowd standing waving and thanking the sisters.”
Sister Melanie Marie, who has been in religious life for 58 years, noted that the founder of the Felicians asked permission from the pope to have daily adoration in the religious community’s main houses. The sisters have a profound love of the Blessed Sacrament, she said.
“The Eucharist is very central,” she said. “I feel emboldened, strengthened to really spread the word (and to) emphasize the real presence (of Christ in the Eucharist) … and the need to be more like Christ.”
Holly Novotny, a parishioner of St. Mark in Catonsville, called the eucharistic procession a “beautiful witness that the church is alive.” Novotny’s husband, Adam, who marched beside his spouse, added that “Baltimore is in the house.”
The Novotnys serve as liaisons to the Charismatic Renewal for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Dan Gahagan, a parishioner of Church of the Resurrection in Ellicott City, was inspired by the great throngs of people who shared the same devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.
“To be here with 55,000 pilgrims – all with the same thought in mind, to glorify the Lord – is just amazing,” he said.
Peggy Gahagan, his wife, added that she hopes to “take back the fire of the Holy Spirit” on her return to Maryland.
Contributing to this article were OSV News and George Matysek Jr. in Baltimore.
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