In an article published by Real Clear Religion, TCA’s Ashley McGuire describes how the historic pilgrimage across America that culminates this week at the Eucharistic Congress is not just a physical feat, but a journey of faith and adoration to share zeal for the Lord. In her article titled, “All Roads Lead to Indianapolis,” she writes:
“For two months, men and women from all walks of life have been participating in a historic Eucharistic pilgrimage, bringing the presence of Jesus on a 6,500-mile journey that has never taken place in the more than 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church. Beginning two months ago, pilgrims starting in four different locations began walking along four different routes, some days as few as two miles, others as many as 20, bringing Jesus in the Eucharist from church to church, past Costco’s and Dollar Generals, along highways and byways, over oceans and rivers, and across the fruited plains of America. They will meet this week in Indianapolis along with tens of thousands of others for the first National Eucharistic Congress in almost a century.
“Their mission? To revive a sense of awe and wonder and love for Jesus alongside fellow pilgrims in this life on Earth.
“It’s surely a needed mission in a nation where religion and belief in God is in serious decline….Talking heads are quick to point to the fact that young people are leading the drop in religious belief, with one-third of millennials and Gen Z identifying as nonreligious.
“And yet it is young people who have overwhelmingly been leading the Eucharistic pilgrimage. Natalie Garza, a 25-year-old high school religion teacher in Kansas, has been the team leader for the Seton route the entire 65-day journey. Rather than fatigued, she is on fire. ‘No one has walked this long and this far with Jesus,’ she told me animatedly of the historic nature of the journey, ‘let alone throughout a whole nation the size of a continent.’
