Pilgrimage’s east route enters archdiocese in hills of Dearborn County
Daughter of Mary Mother of Healing Love Sister Mary Fatima Pham prays with Sue Widolff on July 9 as a 3-mile eucharistic procession that was part of the east route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage makes its way through Dearborn County. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher
DEARBORN COUNTY—The rolling hills of Dearborn County in southeastern Indiana echoed on
July 9 with the sound of handbells and the prayers of some 300 Catholics taking part in a eucharistic procession from New Alsace to Yorkville.
Kathie Schmid, a member of St. Teresa Benedicta
of the Cross Parish in Bright, couldn’t walk the full
3 miles of the afternoon’s procession. As she knelt by the roadside to pray as the Blessed Sacrament went past, she was filled with emotion.
“It just made my heart flutter,” said Schmid with a quivering voice. “I’ve got goosebumps. It’s absolutely beautiful.
“Seeing this many people so in love with Jesus, spending an afternoon walking with him—our Church is going through a real revival right now. This is proof.”
A little further down the road stood Sue Widolff, a member of All Saints Parish in Dearborn County.
A few hours later, she planned to attend her weekly hour of praying before the Blessed Sacrament at her faith community’s perpetual adoration chapel at its St. John the Baptist campus in Dover.
“It gives me goosebumps,” said Widolff as the procession went by. “It’s amazing. It brings tears.
“I know so many of these people. Hopefully, our nation will see this and unite in oneness with God.”
The procession was part of the events that took place at All Saints Parish in the first stop of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in the archdiocese, the first of its four routes to enter the Church in central and southern Indiana. (Related: See a photo gallery)
A group of young adult perpetual pilgrims had accompanied the Blessed Sacrament from the east route’s start on May 19, Pentecost Sunday, in New Haven, Conn. They were accompanied by the route’s chaplain, Father Roger Landry of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass., and a group of men and women religious.
Along their way to the archdiocese and the route’s ultimate destination of Indianapolis and the National Eucharistic Congress, the pilgrims had visited large cities like New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. (See our news coverage and photos of the National Eucharistic Congress at www.archindy.org/congress.)
And while thousands of people in these cities witnessed Christ in the Eucharist being processed through its streets, Father Jonathan Meyer saw meaning in taking the Blessed Sacrament to the, by comparison, more sparsely populated hills of rural Dearborn County, where he has ministered since 2014 at All Saints Parish.
“I know the names of everybody who live on those roads, Catholic and non-Catholic, after being pastor here for 10 years,” he said. “There are a lot of wounds that I’ve witnessed over the past 10 years. I have the ability to bring our Lord in front of their house. So, there’s something maybe even more powerful about doing it in rural areas.”
Recently retired after a 47-year career, Greg Ramsey took part in the procession, starting to fulfill a goal for his retirement of praying for his family, including 18 grandchildren.
“I’m out here praying for them,” said Ramsey, a member of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Aurora. “They all have to go through this pilgrimage of life. I know my own struggles. And I know they’re going to have their struggles.”
When considering the long procession of people following Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, Ramsey said, “I wish it was more. We all need it. The world’s in a mess right now. This is the answer.”
‘The Lord wants to travel everywhere’
As the procession made its way from All Saints’ St. Paul campus in New Alsace to its St. Martin campus in Yorkville, a moving sight was seen. Daughter of Mary, Mother of Healing Love Sister Mary Fatima Pham would take off at a sprint when she saw people watching from yards and roadsides.
She explained to them what was happening, handed them a card to help them learn more about the National Eucharistic Revival and prayed with them as the procession went by.
Then, wearing her order’s blue and white habit (and athletic shoes), she’d sprint again to catch up with members of her community in the procession.
Living in a camper, she and members of her community have accompanied the east route all along its way.
“The Lord wants to travel everywhere, to the fringes, to those in cities, to meet everyone,” said Sister Mary Fatima. “The Lord wants to sanctify every place, every home. Every day has flown by. I love this. I could do this for my whole life.”
Also following the pilgrimage’s east route from its start was Jan Pierson, a member of St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Bloomington. She told The Criterion at All Saints Parish that the route finally reaching the archdiocese “was like coming back home.”
“I’m excited for everybody here to be a part of this,” Pierson continued. “All along the way, people keep saying, ‘Thank you. Thank you for doing this.’ It’s been nothing but happiness and welcome.”
July 9 was the 53rd day of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. After having traveled from Connecticut, Father Landry felt fulfillment in coming to the east route’s final diocese.
“We know we’re on the last lap,” he said. “It’s a time of conversion for us, to make sure that we’re finishing strong. Now we pick it up, rather than, now we rest.”
Dominic Carstens, 23, of La Crosse, Wis., and a recent graduate of Wyoming Catholic College in Lander, Wyo., was one of the perpetual pilgrims traveling along the pilgrimage’s east route.
As those on the east route approached Indiana, he thought that getting there “was the beginning of the end.”
“But it’s not,” Carstens said. “That’s the temptation, to think that this is where the pilgrimage finishes. But this whole pilgrimage has been a series of encounters with Christ. It’s been building us up to both celebrate at the congress and then go on mission. Jesus says both, ‘Come, follow me,’ and ‘Go.’
“What we’ve been doing over the past 53 days has been both coming and encountering Christ and going at the same time. The Congress will be the same way. So, to enter this archdiocese is one big exclamation point of getting to come, celebrate and encounter Christ and to go and spread his good news.”
‘Jesus is for everybody’
In the weeks before the east route arrived in his parish, Father Meyer was encouraged to see so many Catholics in so many places take part in the pilgrimage.
“People gather in large numbers because of something that they care about,” he said. “We Catholics should be more convicted about Jesus being present in the Blessed Sacrament than anything else in the world.”
And he was especially glad that the pilgrimage included so many processions on the streets of cities and towns and on country roads like those in Dearborn County.
“Jesus is not for us. Jesus is for everybody,” Father Meyer said. “We need to bring him out of the churches and into the streets. We need to start sharing the greatest treasure that the world has, which is Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.”
For his part, Father Landry was convinced that the tens of thousands of Catholics coming to Indianapolis would have a great effect on the archdiocese.
“I was present at World Youth Day in Denver [in 1993],” he said. “After that papal visit, Denver’s Catholic history has changed.
“To have so many of the most fervent Catholics in America all converge on the Archdiocese of Indianapolis from four different angles [on the pilgrimage] and then soon be joined by fervent Catholics with great eucharistic love from all over the country at the Congress itself, I can’t help but think that God is going to bless Indianapolis with hands and the fruits will last for decades.” †
Related story: Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes meet in Indy with Christ leading the way
