Catholics in the heart of LA answered the Pope’s call to “hear the cry of the poor” in a very literal way last week, with a Eucharistic procession, organized by the Beloved Movement, that covered the busiest section of Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
After a Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church in Hollywood, celebrated by several of the Jesuits who work in the adjacent Center for Homelessness, some 700 people poured out into the streets, carrying signs that read “Sacred Silence,” and processing through the busiest part of downtown Hollywood, where a growing number of homeless people have gathered.
A team of volunteers, including several local high school students, knelt or sat with the homeless on the city’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” listening to their stories and offering a ministry of presence.
The procession was led by local seminarians from St. John’s Seminary and Queen of the Angels, and attended by several religious orders, including the Daughters of St. Paul, Friars and Sisters of the Poor Jesus, Sisters of the Sick Poor, and the Sacred Heart Sisters. Men in discernment with the Office of Vocations and representatives from the Order of St. Lazarus and the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre were also among the crowd.
The evening ended with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the church parking lot, alternating between praise and worship by Jon Martin and Chris Nuno and periods of silent prayer.
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