Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Espaillat led nearly 2,500 people in Eucharistic Procession along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, one of many such events held throughout the archdiocese on Corpus Christi Sunday.

Along with the pastors of the West Bronx Deanery, Bishop Espaillat led the four-hour procession beginning at 4 p.m., heading southbound starting at St. Philip Neri parish at 202nd Street and ending at Cardinal Hayes High School at 151st Street. Prayers of hope and songs of praise were conducted in Spanish and English, with priests, nuns, deacons, and laity leaders guiding the faithful.

Olga Rodriguez was among those walking in the procession. She was participating in the procession to help demonstrate to the world “that Jesus is alive, He is the sacrament on the altar,” Rodriguez told The Good Newsroom. 

“He is everything for my family and for my friends,” Rodriguez, mother of two, said after the procession passed 199th Street. Her home parish is St. Anthony of Padua in the Bronx, where Bishop Espaillat is pastor. 

Also, in the procession was Rafael Cartagena, a parishioner at St. Margaret Mary in the Bronx. He said he was there “to support the Church on this Corpus Christi Sunday. We are all with Jesus. In our lives we need Jesus Christ; and with the way things are nowadays, the world needs Jesus Christ.” 

About 1,400 people gathered outside St. Philip Neri Church before the procession began; along the way, parishioners from several churches relatively close to the Grand Concourse joined, having been waiting at select corners of the concourse, swelling to nearly 2,500. Approximately 100 members of St. Simon Stock – St. Joseph Parish, also of the Bronx, joined the procession as it passed by, parish representatives said. 

The participants, with police escort, walked on the southbound side section of the concourse, and on the adjacent sidewalks. Bishop Espaillat offered a blessing when the procession ended at Cardinal Hayes High School. 

Organizers say the procession and other National Eucharistic Revival gatherings are testimonies of the Catholic faith, that they are certain that walking with the Eucharist in the procession is to bless the people of God, that the Lord is in the Eucharist, that “this is about shouting out, ‘God is with us,’” and that in the middle of all that is happening today in society, Eucharistic processions are “signs of hope.”   

On Saturday, May 27, a Spanish-English Pentecost Vigil at St. Patrick’s Cathedral was preceded by a large street procession from Father Duffy Square at Times Square to the cathedral. Bishop Espaillat and members of the Charismatic Renewal of the Archdiocese of New York led that procession and the vigil.   

In southern Dutchess County, members of Saint Columba Church in Hopewell Junction processed with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament along Hopewell’s Main Street during their Corpus Christi procession on Sunday. Father Michael McLoughlin, Pastor, and Father Walter Genito, Parochial Vicar, led the procession and Rosary. They were joined by nearly 75 parishioners, and members of the Sisters of the Resurrection and the Oblates to the Blessed Trinity, to bring the love and light of Jesus to their town. Members of Saint Eugene Church of Yonkers led a similar procession through their community, with about 200 participants led by Father Matthew Fernan, Pastor.

 Many of the Corpus Christi processions were held in support of the National Eucharistic Revival. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched the three-year National Eucharistic Revival on Corpus Christi Sunday in 2022.