An estimated crowd of nearly 40,000 people took to the streets of Indianapolis Saturday to walk more than one mile, for a Eucharistic procession aimed at showing worship to God, unifying the Church, and giving a witness to Catholic love and devotion for Jesus Christ, present in the Eucharist.
By the numbers, according to organizers, there were approximately 800 religious sisters, 55 religious brothers, 500 deacons and 550 seminarians, and more than 900 priests.
Two hundred bishops reportedly walked in the Eucharistic procession, along with at least one cardinal, apostolic nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre.
The pilgrimage traveled from the Indiana Convention Center to a World War I memorial, where a vast crowd prayed for the Church and for the U.S., and received solemn benediction, with tens of thousands kneeling in the streets, or on a large grassy mall.
And here are a few more photographs:
The procession was the culmination of a summer of Eucharistic processions for the Church, mostly centered around the four cross-country Eucharistic pilgrimages organized to proceed the Eucharistic Congress.
Congress organizers say they hope the wave of processions will continue, and that the pilgrimages might encourage Eucharistic and other devotional processions as an ordinary part of parish and diocesan life.
Noodles
On Thursday and Friday at the National Eucharistic Congress, thousands of pilgrim Catholics took a break from talks, confession, and adoration, for something else important: macaroni-and-cheese.
They weren’t eating the macaroni. Instead, they were assembling macaroni-and-cheese meal packets, for distribution to Indiana food banks and pantries.
Families, religious sisters, and priests worked together to weigh cheese mix, measure macaroni, seal shelf-stable bags, and pack them all in boxes, as part of the Eucharistic Congress’ commitment to works of mercy conducted among participants, in this case organized by Million Meal Movement, an Indianapolis nonprofit.
A spokesperson for the organization told The Pillar that the food packets assembled by volunteers each provide one meal for six people, and that Eucharistic Congress volunteers had, by Friday afternoon, packaged 80,000 packets, making nearly half a million meals.
The food assembly lines, which took over a corner of the exhibit hall, are a response to the Congress emphasis that Eucharistic devotion should spur commitment to both evangelization and to solidarity with the poor — a point also exemplified by the witness of religious sisters and brothers who have taken to sitting with homeless in the area surrounding the Indiana Convention Center, sharing meals and offering water.
Over the barriers
Still in the exhibit hall, and nearby the Million Meal Movement project, is the booth of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, an organization chartered by the U.S. bishops’ conference to promote the inclusion of Catholics with disabilities in the life of the Church.
Charleen Katra, executive director of the NCPD, talked with The Pillar about inclusion at the Eucharistic Congress:
What is the mission of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability?
We work to make sure that the Church is fully accessible for people with any kind of disability — physical, emotional, behavioral, intellectual, developmental, etc. — to be able to participate and belong in the Church, to find a home in the church, and to live a sacramental life, with full participation and belonging.
When the bishops wrote their first pastoral statement for disability ministry in 1978, they called the NCPD into existence, and we began in 1982 at the national resource for the U.S. Church to oversee training and provide resources to our Church leadership in particular. We serve families directly, and parish leadership, as well as diocesan offices in the U.S.
Our focus here at this conference was to give a presentation on ensuring access to the Eucharist for all. For people with any developmental or intellectual disability, we want to make sure that there are no barriers to receiving sacraments and living a sacramental life.
Has the Congress itself been accessible to people with disabilities?
There have been some challenges. Even from a speaker perspective, for example, I was asked to use a PowerPoint template that would not be accessible to someone who had any kind of vision problem — if we ever wanted to share the PowerPoint with someone with any vision problem, the fonts and the contrast of the colors in the template they wanted to use would not be accessible.
And so I sent the Congress links to information, to learn how to make [the templates] accessible, and they received the input graciously.
Is there a place for people with significant disabilities at the Congress?
Well, they consulted with us before the Congress, a couple of years ago, and they do have sensory rooms. I had recommended doing that for an event this large, just because of the over-stimulation, for even the average person, because of all the lights and sights and sounds and smells — it can be overwhelming. The Congress has a sensory room for adults, which I have seen, and they have a couple, at least, for younger people.
When I got here, I reviewed them, and the Congress asked if I had any recommendations, but I told them that they looked very good overall. I think they did great.
When things happen like the PowerPoint issue you mentioned, or issues with sacramental accessibility in a parish, it can be easy to think that maybe inclusion isn’t important to Church leaders. Is that your experience? Is it a disposition of thinking that inclusion isn’t important, or is it more often that Church leaders just don’t know what to do?
I don’t think there is usually a disposition [of exclusion]. You do occasionally have that, and I am not in denial of that, unfortunately.
But I think overall it’s something different — usually a lack of training and resources, more often than not.
When we did some listening sessions lately, we heard people saying that they wanted resources and training for accommodating disabilities. And the NCPD already has that, and they didn’t know about it — so it was good to know that people wanted those things, but disheartening that they didn’t know about us.
So that’s why we try to be out and be visible, so that we can help people to know how to approach these things.
We’re here at the Eucharistic Congress, so let’s talk about the Eucharist, specifically. There is sometimes a perception that people who are non-verbal or have profound intellectual disabilities might not be able to receive the Eucharist.
What does the Church say?
The Church says that reception of the Eucharist is a right of every baptized Catholic, and has always said this — but in recent documents it’s written clearly as a non-negotiable.
The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith — so we definitely don’t want barriers to it. We don’t want people to imagine that because someone can't speak like you or I can, or even process intellectually like you or I can, or at a level like you or I or others can, that they don't have a spiritual life, or that they are not called to the same holiness.
Catholics with disabilities are the same as Catholics without disabilities.
When a family approaches their pastor about preparing a child with a disability for the Eucharist, and the pastor isn’t sure what to do — maybe he’s not sure if the child is able to receive the Eucharist at all — where should he turn for guidance.
Well, first and foremost, I pray he knows about the National Catholic Partnership on Disability. We’re here to help.
But I had a priest at our session this week, and his question was the opposite. He wanted to know how to help families who think their child can’t receive a sacrament. And I basically said, “Father, you’re it. You’re the one who needs to encourage them and support them to bring their children — children of God — to the Eucharist.
And then families — and I know it’s hard, because they are already often physically, emotionally, financially, and sometimes spiritually bankrupt, on any given day because of how much they have on their platter — but families should bring their needs to the Church, and then we can help to work out how to respond to those needs.
What should we expect from the new pastoral letter on disabilities, which the USCCB is now working on?
I expect, and so I hope that bishops expect in collaboration with us, a document that speaks to the giftedness and talents of persons with disabilities, seen or unseen.
I hope it is hope-filled, and not negating challenges, but putting them in the light of Christ.
Christ suffered; we all suffer.
We are more alike than different, and we need to be creating opportunities for inclusion, belonging, and communion.
‘If you’re comfortable’
While many pilgrims have likely not noticed, some Catholics have told The Pillar they appreciate a subtle but seemingly deliberate decision of Eucharistic Congress organizers: they say language about prayer, and especially postures of prayer, seems “trauma-informed,” and focused on invitation, rather than direction.
Priests praying litanies have, for example, told participants to “close your eyes if you’re comfortable,” and other speakers have invited Catholics to pray, “if you can do so,” or “if you’re able.”
While subtle, some victims of clerical sexual abuse have told The Pillar that rhetorical choices at the Congress have given them the sense that their experiences, and consequent insecurities or uncertainties, are respected and understood by Congress speakers.
The Holy Qurbana
On Saturday morning, Catholics at Lucas Oil Stadium attended the Holy Qurbana, the ancient Eucharistic liturgy of the Syro-Malabar Eastern Catholic Church, celebrated by Bishop Mar Joy Alappat, who is the diocesan bishop of all Syro-Malabar Catholics in the United States.
The liturgy, which originated in India and has very ancient roots in Syria, was offered in English, while a Chicago parish choir sang hymns in Syriac and Malayalam, a language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala.
While most attendees at the liturgy were Latin Catholics, there were Syro-Malabar families in attendance.
“This was amazing,” Dennis Thekkuden, who is a Syro-Malabar Catholic , told The Pillar after the liturgy.
“Seeing the Syro-Malabar rite on this stage, so that not just us Malayalis, but everyone can experience it. And there’s a reverence the Syro-Malabar liturgy provides, towards the Eucharist, so I think it’s amazing.”
“This is evidence of the universal Church, and the diversity of the Church,” Theresa Thekkuden told The Pillar. “We have different languages and cultures, but still we are worshiping one Lord. That’s the beauty of seeing this liturgy here, is that we are one Church following one Lord.”
“There is a renewal happening in our Church, and this is good evidence for it. I see so many people standing — and this is a long liturgy — but people were still standing, and, you know, I feel the Spirit moving through this place. I was in tears throughout,” she added.
“This [liturgy] was very much in the style of what my parents, grandparents, ancestors — going back to what the apostles passed on. So it’s good to transmit our sense of culture and our beliefs to our children,” Dennis Thekkuden added.
For his part, Bishop Alappat told The Pillar after the liturgy that Saturday’s was the largest Syro-Malabar liturgy ever to be held in the United States.
He said that he hoped all Catholics saw in his liturgical rite an expressed sense of the mystery of God’s presence in the Eucharist.
“We are looking to Jesus, while offering the liturgy,” Alappat said. “And we are all looking to Jesus here, now. That is why we are here.”
