A number of people walked from Fort Wayne to Plymouth, in full or in part, as part of the national Eucharistic procession Tuesday.
A Eucharistic procession is a traditional public witness of veneration to the Blessed Sacrament, which Catholics believe to be the living person of Jesus Christ - body, blood, soul and divinity - conducted through public streets.
The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage through the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend started Friday. Tuesday’s portion of the pilgrimage started at 7:30 a.m. with a Mass and procession with Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Fort Wayne. From 9:45 to 10 a.m., there was an adoration at St. Francis Xavier Church in Pierceton. At 10 a.m., the procession went from St. Francis Xavier to Sacred Heart Church in Warsaw, where there was lunch and prayer.
From Warsaw, people would proceed to St. Michael Church in Plymouth.
According to Rhoades, the procession was a nationwide procession with four processions from four corners of the U.S. converging in Indianapolis. The procession through the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend started at the source of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. People made their way through Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana. There will be a national Eucharistic conference. It will be five days with a lot of talks and music.
“It’s going to be like a big festival all about the Holy Eucharist, to revive ... It’s a revival, it’s a Eucharistic revival,” Rhoades said.

    Father Jonathan Norton, of Sacred Heart Church, is shown during an adoration at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Pierceton Tuesday during the Eucharistic procession. Photo by Jackie Gorski, Times-Union
  

When asked why Indianapolis was chosen, Rhoades said, “We did a lot of discernment, the bishops. And (Indianapolis) had all the things we needed. It had the big stadium, the convention center because of the thousands of people, we needed something that would accommodate such a big gathering. And Indianapolis is more central in the United States.”
The idea of a nationwide Eucharistic procession came from a commission meeting of the U.S. bishops and “we decided to have a three-year revival and this is the third year,” Rhoades said.
Father Jonathan Norton, of Sacred Heart Church, said six or seven churches participated in the procession Tuesday.
A diocese-wide procession happened in 2022. The procession started at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and made the approximately 2.8-mile journey to Central Park and to Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish with a benediction.
Rhoades said this year’s procession is different because it’s nationwide and the Holy Eucharist “is being carried throughout the United States, passing through our dioceses. The last one was just in our diocese. This one is truly national.”
Rhoades said the purpose of the Eucharistic procession is to come together in prayer and worship of the Lord. Afterward, people can go forth to bring the love of God into the world.
Rhoades said there were hundreds of people at each stop, so there were thousands of people participating in the procession. And on top of that, there’s at least 1,000 people going to the conference in Indianapolis from this diocese alone.
Norton said he thought Tuesday went very well and very special.
“We got a little bit of rain, but that’s all right,” he said.
Norton said he calculated all the stops nationwide for the procession and there are 533 stops and for Sacred Heart to be one of those stops was very special.
“I’m just very proud of our parish,” he said.
Maria Bratt, from Indianapolis, said she started walking in the procession in South Bend. She said it was beautiful walking with Jesus. Her takeaway from the procession is how much the Lord loves people and wants to be with them.
Megan and Kevin Stone walked from Pierceton to Warsaw. Megan said they walked as an expression of their faith and to be part of the community of believers and to show adoration of the blessed sacrament of Jesus.
Kevin said he thinks it’s good for the community to see Christians are willing to get out there and show their faith and be a witness. He thinks there may be some people that see the procession Tuesday and be changed by it.