Tens of Thousands Flood Indianapolis Streets During Procession of the Blessed Sacrament

Scott Warden
Sister Alicia Torres, a member of the Franciscans of the Eucharist of Chicago and also a member of the National Eucharistic Revival’s executive team, walks down Meridian Street in Indianapolis ahead of the Eucharistic procession on Saturday, July 20.

“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.

Along with Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson, Bishop Cozzens had accompanied the Eucharist on a truck-pulled float, kneeling before the gleaming monstrance.

Nicole Hahn
With a view from the top steps of Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis, Meridian Street is packed with pilgrims moments after the Eucharistic procession passed by.

Thousands had processed behind the flower-rimmed float, slowly making their way across 10 city blocks from the Indiana Convention Center to the Indiana World War Memorial. Others lined the streets, kneeling as the Eucharist passed by.

The procession was a much-anticipated highlight of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, held July 17-21 at the convention center and at Lucas Oil Stadium. More than 50,000 passes were sold for the congress – the first National Eucharistic Congress in 83 years – but organizers expected the procession to draw from beyond the congress’s registered participants.

Scott Warden
Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis and Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, ride on a float with the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament in front of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday, July 20.

The float was preceded by hundreds of seminarians, religious sisters and brothers, deacons, an estimated 1,000 priests, and more than 100 bishops and cardinals – including Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the U.S. Papal Nuncio, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pope Francis’ special envoy to the congress.

At the very front 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.

Scott Warden
Pilgrims wait for the procession to pass by in downtown Indianapolis.

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.

Kneeling before the Eucharist, Bishop Cozzens prayed, “Jesus we know the procession we made today is a symbol, a sign of our earthly pilgrimage, and it’s not over. … We know that you want all people to follow you. Jesus, we will walk with them. Jesus, bring them to us. We want to walk with them toward you, Jesus.” He continued: “Jesus we have experienced in these days together just a small taste of heaven. Show us, Lord, who you are. … Make us, Lord, your missionaries to every corner of our land.”

Scott Warden
Missionaries of Charity walk in the Eucharistic procession ahead of the Blessed Sacrament.

Scott Warden
Thousands of pilgrims stood at the foot of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Indianapolis waiting for the Eucharistic procession to pass through the streets.