INDIANAPOLIS — More than 50,000 people are getting ready for the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis
13News saw some of the Catholic pilgrims around 10th and Rural Monday morning as they made the trip downtown sharing their faith.
This is the first congress in 83 years. It officially begins Wednesday at Lucas Oil Stadium and continues through Saturday.
They are in the middle of a two-month journey on four routes across the United States. Everywhere, the center of attention is the Eucharistic host, held in a golden vessel known as a monstrance.
“The pilgrimage is a really exciting opportunity for us to literally walk with Jesus, like the apostles did,” said Zoe Dongas, one of a small group of “perpetual” pilgrims traveling an entire route.
Starting in May in New Haven, Connecticut, her group has processed through cities, ridden by boat to the Statue of Liberty and trekked through rural Pennsylvania in a heat wave. The group will travel from West Virginia across Ohio to Indianapolis, meeting up with pilgrims who started from California, Texas and Minnesota.
Organizers are hoping that the enterprise reinforces the core Catholic belief that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, and not just symbolized by bread and wine, as many Protestants believe.
Some have questioned the need for the event, and the congress’ $14 million cost — saying belief in the Eucharist is stronger than feared, that the event is only appealing to those already drawn to traditional piety and that it’s partly the byproduct of a political debate. But Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, said reinforcing Eucharistic faith is crucial.
“If that is weakened in our people, then they’ll be weakened in their response to Christ and to the service of God and neighbor that they’re supposed to offer,” Brennan said aboard the boat taking him and his counterpart from the Diocese of Steubenville downriver toward Wheeling.