National Eucharistic Pilgrimage ends, but 'the best is yet to come'

The monstrance holding the Eucharist gleamed in the midday sun July 16 as pilgrims on the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage's northern Marian Route turned a downtown corner and came into view of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, the pilgrimage's final destination.

They had removed their shoes a mile earlier for the last stretch of the six miles they had walked that day, beginning at Holy Angels Church, three miles north of downtown Indianapolis. They had walked barefoot once before after rain soaked their shoes, but this time, it was an act of humility.

"The last mile was very special," said Kai Weiss, a Marian route "perpetual pilgrim" and one of 30 20-year-olds who have traveled along the pilgrimage's four routes since its kickoff May 18-19 -- Pentecost weekend -- from four cities in the nation's North, South, East and West.

Two months, 551 stops in 65 dioceses and more than 6,500 miles later -- with more than 100,000 participants along the way -- the four routes of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage converged in Indianapolis July 16, one day before the start of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21, the first such gathering in 83 years.

The Marian Route was the last of the four routes to arrive at St. John that morning for a noon Mass welcoming the pilgrims to Indianapolis. As the pilgrims walked the final block to the church, they sang a worship song while "day pilgrims" -- people who had earlier joined other routes for their final processions -- quietly knelt in reverence for the Eucharistic Lord.

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and the National Eucharistic Congress are key components of the National Eucharistic Revival, the U.S. bishops' three-year initiative launched in 2022 to deepen love for and understanding of Jesus' real presence in the Eucharist.

Earlier that morning, pilgrims on the Eastern Seton Route gathered for morning prayer at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church three and a half miles west of downtown Indianapolis. Over a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, Mexican sweet bread and doughnuts provided by the parish, Zoe Dongas, a 25-year-old perpetual pilgrim from New York, said "it kind of feels surreal that we made it to this point."

"I don't think that the emotions have quite hit," she said. "I think once we walk into the church and see all the other teams that have been on this crazy adventure with Jesus for the past two months just like us, I think it will really become real."

During their final procession, Dongas played guitar and sang hymns and worship music in English and Spanish, uniting a crowd that grew to more than 100 and stretched the length of a city block. The procession wound through residential streets, small shopping districts and into the shadows of downtown high-rises.

The procession drew Catholics of all ages, many holding rosaries as they walked. Kids in rain boots splashed in puddles from rain earlier that morning, and at least five families pushed double strollers. Maggie Pollard, 31, walked with her 5-week-old son, Justin.

"It feels cool to know that I'll be able to see the four processions come together after such a long period of time traveling the U.S., and just feeling like everyone coming together as a country, I think, will be very special," she said.

A parishioner of St. Jude in Indianapolis, Pollard noted that her mother had met up with the Seton Route pilgrims while they passed through Ohio, "so it feels special, that I'm doing the Seton pilgrimage with her, even on different days."

Many people walking with the Seton pilgrims were from other states and had traveled to Indianapolis for the congress early to participate in the pilgrimage's final day. Aaron and Diana Giard, both 38, of eastern Massachusetts, had extended a late-June visit to Diana's family in Indianapolis by weeks in order to attend the congress. Walking on that morning's procession was a way for the family to "get in the mindset of who we're worshipping and who Christ is."

Noting that their oldest son had received his first Communion earlier that year, Diana said the pilgrimage and the congress gave their children "an opportunity for them to enter into a deeper relationship and to experience something like this."

"It's beautiful to see all the families around you and know that we're part of this larger community that's much bigger than ourselves," she said.

Larry Cirignano, 68, of Alexandria, Virginia, joined the Seton Route's final procession after having been at the Seton Route's launch in New Haven, Connecticut, and processed with them again June 8 in Washington, D.C. He was accompanied in Indianapolis by 83-year-old Joan McKee of Washington, who, in her 20s, had attended the 1974 International Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia.

"I'm so happy to be here," she told OSV News. "I know it's the best the church can offer us and invite us all to. The Eucharist is where the action is, the Mass is where the action is. And here we are."

As the procession reached the steps of St. John around 11:15 a.m., Father Roger Landry -- the Seton Route's chaplain and the only priest to travel the full length of any of the four routes -- ascended its steps and held the monstrance aloft, blessing the crowd outside. People knelt in silence and made the sign of the cross, with many also taking photos and video.

The perpetual pilgrims entered St. John for quiet prayer with the groups from the Western St. Junipero Route and Southern St. Juan Diego Route, who had already arrived, while the crowd -- which included an array of religious men and women in habits -- waited along the street for the Marian group.

Behind them, a huge sign on the side of the Indiana Convention Center read "Revival Starts Here." The convention center, across from St. John's double-towered facade, is the site of the congress, along with Lucas Oil Stadium.

Seeing St. John come into view felt like a "homecoming," said Marian Route perpetual pilgrim Matthew Heidenreich, whose group launched their pilgrimage from the Mississippi Headwaters May 18.

"Just to be greeted by so many people, it was a slice of heaven," he said. "There's so many people here from all of the routes who have come together to be here for this moment, to welcome Christ, to welcome our Lord. And I think it was a slice of heaven, a foretaste of what God is going to give us."

Before leaving for the final procession, Weiss told OSV News that he felt "overwhelmed, but in a good way."

"It's just crazy to be here after two months of walking," he said. 'I can't wait to carry Jesus another three miles, and then meet all the other pilgrims and see what they've been doing the last two months."

The pilgrimage, Weiss said, "is the best thing I've ever done.

"It's been the most stressful, the most intense thing I've ever done, but it's also the most beautiful thing," he said. "It will be very sad to say goodbye to this whole experience."

"If you spend time with Jesus for eight weeks, eight to 10 hours a day, I think it's just a very transformative experience," he said. "He's working on you. I think that's one thing that I've really experienced spending so much time with Jesus. All the problems, all the struggles, all the lies that I believe about God, about myself, about my fellow human beings really come to the forefront. And so there's sort of a weakness and a need of healing, but then also Jesus' infinite love meeting that. And so I think we've all been very much transformed, have been healed, and have hopefully grown in our faith. And, yes, so we are very different than in the beginning."

Pilgrims on the Marian Route prayed, sang and praised the Lord as they processed toward the heart of the city, including praying for those in an ambulance that passed by, and for all in a local hospital.

Melissa Marcucci, 54, from Crystal Lake, Illinois, walked the final three miles from Holy Angels to St. John the Evangelist with her daughter, Elle Marcucci, 25. The mother and daughter had joined the Marian Route pilgrimage several times during the past eight weeks.

"I feel like it's literally following Jesus like they did in the old days," Melissa said, "and I think he's there, and we are to follow him, and so we are doing what we feel he would want us to do and what is best for us."

"I'm here just to follow the Lord and just to experience just walking with him like his disciples did," Elle said. "It's going to be an amazing experience, and it's already drawn me closer to my faith."

After the Marian Route pilgrims entered St. John, the crowd streamed in for Mass, filling its neo-gothic interior. Archbishop Charles C. Thompson of Indianapolis presided, with Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the congress's papal delegate, among the concelebrants.

In his homily, Archbishop Thompson noted that at the National Eucharistic Congress ahead tens of thousands would gather "to accompany, celebrate, discern, encounter, pray and proclaim what it means to be church, to be Catholic in the 21st century."

"We are called to be pilgrim people of God, missionary disciples of Jesus, the body of Christ," he said.

In remarks after the Mass, Bishop Cozzens, chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., said, "It's a very moving thing to be here at the end of this pilgrimage," adding that it "almost didn't happen" because he thought it was logistically impossible, even after Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly of the Knights of Columbus helped conceive of the four-route structure.

It was the urging of Father Landry and Father John Anthony, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, during a meeting of the National Eucharistic Revival's Eucharistic preachers that convinced Bishop Cozzens that it might be possible, especially because Father Landry offered to walk a route, and Father John Anthony pledged the presence of the friars' presence on each leg of all routes. It came together with the organizational support of the team of Minnesota-based Modern Catholic Pilgrim.

Commending the Modern Catholic Team, Bishop Cozzens said, "They did an incredible thing for the United States church, and we're very, very grateful," to which the congregation burst into extended applause.

"I said to someone this morning, 'It feels like if we just did this we could all go home right now (and) it would have been a great thing,'" Bishop Cozzens continued. "But don't go home, because the best is yet to come."

Following Mass, Will Peterson, founder and president of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, told OSV News he felt "relief."

"What these young people have done over these past two months -- they've been on the roads, they've been on boats, they've been out with our Lord, and that can be a scary thing and that takes a lot of guts," he said.

"It's a wild world that needs Jesus out there, and they took him, and he went everywhere," he continued. "For these young people to do that, and our chaplains, and our team -- it's been two years of planning. It was a tremendous honor to be here today and to know that Jesus got here and our pilgrims did, too."

Peterson noted that the pilgrimage's end coincided with his son's second birthday.

"I have a lot of hope for him and this world that he's growing into," he said, "with young people like this."

Contributing to this story were Gretchen Crowe and Natalie Hoefer.