By Jennifer Mauro, Managing Editor
and Pete Sanchez, Staff Writer
As dusk faded into night, so, too, did the hallmark sounds of a Saturday on the Atlantic City Boardwalk as more than a thousand faithful lifted up their voices in prayer and song during the Eucharistic Candlelight Procession led by Bishop Dennis Sullivan.
As priests of the Diocese held the monstrance high during the nearly 1-mile walk, the scent of incense mingled with those of pizza, funnel cakes and the salty ocean breeze while curious onlookers emerged from eateries to take photos or ask questions. Others dropped to their knees in genuflection.
Photo Gallery: Dozens of pictures from the Eucharistic Candlelight Procession
“We are the Church of Camden,” Bishop Sullivan said in celebrating the Vigil of Corpus Christi on June 18, the procession being the official start of the National Eucharistic Revival for the Catholic Church in the United States. With the theme of “My Flesh for the Life of the World” (John 6:51), this three-year push aims to inspire a “movement of Catholics across the United States, healed, converted, formed, and unified by an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist.”
Speaking on the sixth Chapter of John, Bishop Sullivan said, “We heard Jesus say, ‘I am the Bread of Life.’ Jesus’ self-identity. … He is in this host that we have carried in procession. … In the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, we encounter Jesus Christ. … He is really present. He is truly present, and when we receive the Lord in Holy Communion, his life mixes with our lives.
“The Eucharist is an encounter with the living Lord. So sisters and brothers, may this three-year initiative inspire faith-filled devotion to the Sacrament of the Eucharist here in our Diocese. May it convert those who have strayed from the flock. May it clearly teach the truth of Catholic faith. The truth that the Lord is present, really and truly present, not symbolically.”
The Bishop’s sentiments came toward the end of the 1.5-hour procession, at an altar set up at the Boardwalk’s Kennedy Plaza. Along the way, faithful representing dozens of parishes from across the Diocese’s six counties – and beyond – paused two times to genuflect before temporary altars erected along the route. At the first, members of the Asian-Pacific community led a prayer (Korean), along with music (Filipino) and traditional dance (Vietnamese). Those from the Latino community led prayer and song at the second stop, with the faithful placing red and white flowers in front of the monstrance.
Hector Paradela of Saint Katharine Drexel Parish, Egg Harbor Township, who directed the Filipino choir, called it an honor to sing in front of the Eucharist with so many people in attendance. “I hope people learn that the Eucharist is the center of our life. That is what our song is about, too. Life moves in everything we do – food, sleep, work – this is the center of it all, what it’s about. Otherwise, whatever else you do is meaningless.”
Doug Tyron, his battery-operated candle among the thousand lighting the way, said the procession was an important witness to the faith.
“A witness. That is what Jesus called us to be,” said Tyron of Christ the Redeemer Parish, Atco. “The Eucharist is the Bread of Life. The Eucharist is going to be the thing that saves the world from its problems.”
Father Robert Hughes, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Camden, expressed amazement at the number of people who took part in the procession.
“It was beautiful,” he said. “A perfect place for us to demonstrate our faith.” “People joined along the way, and the crowds along the boardwalk enjoying their evening couldn’t help but take notice. You could hear them questioning: ‘What is that?’ ‘Why are they doing it.’ If some of them had their questions answered, that’s good.”
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