Archdiocese of New Orleans to host one of the Eucharistic Processions ahead of the National Eucharistic Revival

 The Eucharist: Body, blood, soul and divinity

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond
Archdiocese of New Orleans

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has a special connection to the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, which will be held in Indianapolis July 17-21. You weren’t born yet, but the 8th National Eucharistic Congress was held in New Orleans in 1938.

Yes! I remember as a student reading about the 8th National Eucharistic Congress at City Park Stadium, and one of the striking things to me is that there has been only one other National Eucharistic Congress since then, and that was in 1941 in St. Paul. That’s 83 years ago! When the bishops of the United States voted in 2021 to make plans for a three-year eucharistic revival, we were dealing with a sobering reality. A Pew Research Center study in 2019 indicated that only about a third of the people who describe themselves as Catholic believe that the Eucharist is the true body and blood of Jesus Christ. Among Catholics who attend Mass at least once a week, about 6 in 10 believe Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. Nevertheless, there have been other recent studies that are more optimistic. We hope the revival will be a time of healing for the entire country as well as an opportunity for the church to evangelize and rekindle the understanding of the sacrament of the Eucharist.

Wasn’t the archdiocese ahead of the rest of the country in focusing on the power of the Eucharist?

Actually, we were about a year ahead! We designated 2021 as the Year of the Eucharist, and we offered regional eucharistic gatherings that included homilies, talks, sacred music, and praise and worship music and adoration. I think our Year of the Eucharist was very successful in raising awareness of our Catholic belief that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, and that Jesus Christ – body, blood, soul and divinity – is truly present in the Eucharist. We’re delighted to join with the rest of the country this summer in proclaiming that same message. I think our parishes are doing a great job continuing their devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. We are encouraging parishes and schools and individual families to attend the congress in Indianapolis because there will be amazing talks and liturgies and ways for people to adore the Eucharist. Anyone who might be interested in attending can call Christopher O’Neill, who is the director of the Office of Marriage and Family Life, at (504) 861-6243 or coneill@arch-no.org. The congress organizers also have a well-resourced website at www.eucharisticcongress.org.

One of the features leading up to the congress will be four eucharistic processions in different parts of the country, and the Archdiocese of New Orleans will be included.

Yes. We are very excited that our city has been chosen to host one of the eucharistic processions in June, several weeks prior to the congress. The southern arm of the pilgrimage will be named after St. Juan Diego, who had a great devotion to the Eucharist. He made his own little pilgrimage every day, rising before dawn and walking 15 miles to Mass. The St. Juan Diego pilgrimage will depart from the tip of Texas in Brownsville, go through Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ), wind around the Gulf of Mexico and pass through New Orleans and the southeastern part of the United States on its way to Indianapolis. We plan to celebrate Mass on Sunday, June 9, at 9 a.m. at St. Louis Cathedral and then have a procession around Jackson Square following Mass. Also, on Friday, June 7, there will be a eucharistic procession from Notre Dame Seminary to St. Rita Church a few blocks away, where we will have music performed by The Vigil Project and also have opportunities for confession and adoration.

What are some of the historical tidbits you picked up about the 8th National Eucharistic Congress in New Orleans?

We know that preparations for the Congress were made many months in advance. Archbishop Rummel gave several lectures, and the cathedral was renovated. There were even temporary altars set up for visiting clergy in hotel lobbies and at the Municipal Auditorium. One of the huge projects of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women was collecting donations, including jewels, to create a monstrance that held the consecrated Eucharist. We all know of Tad Gormley Stadium as a football and track field, but it was turned into a huge outdoor church. At the beginning of the first Mass, Pope Pius XI addressed the crowd from Rome with a six-minute speech via short-wave radio. The most memorable event was an 80,000-person, 2.7-mile procession from Canal and Salcedo streets – the intersection near Warren Easton High School – to the stadium. People who had homes along the route had been encouraged to plant flowers that would bloom in the papal colors – yellow and white. There was even a Goodyear blimp overhead! There were 32 school marching bands, and, at the end, Cardinal George Mundelein of Chicago, who was the delegate of Pope Pius XI, rode on a Mardi Gras-style float, kneeling before the monstrance. The procession took about five hours and ended with adoration of the Eucharist by the crowd waiting in the stadium.