Hundreds of Catholics waited prayerfully in Iowa to welcome the Holy Eucharist to Dubuque as part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
DUBUQUE, Iowa (LifeSiteNews) -- Hundreds of Catholics gathered on the riverbank to pray last week as Bishop Dennis Walsh of the Diocese of Davenport, Iowa, brought the Holy Eucharist to the neighboring Archdiocese of Dubuque.
On May 23, Bishop Walsh carried the Holy Eucharist on a boat to the Port of Dubuque on the Mississippi River, where hundreds of Catholics were kneeling by the riverbank as part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, according to the Telegraph Herald.
“This is a moment of grace for our local church,” Dubuque Archbishop Thomas Zinkula said ahead of the event. “The Eucharist is the source and summit of our Catholic faith, and this pilgrimage is a reminder of Jesus’ real presence among us … in our communities and in our daily lives.”
Catholic priests, deacons, men and women religious and laypeople adored the Eucharist while kneeling on the riverbank as the houseboat carrying Walsh and other pilgrims came into port on Friday.
The monstrance carrying the Holy Eucharist was then taken to the nearby American Trust River’s Edge Plaza, where faithful sang hymns and prayed.
The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is a historic Catholic initiative where participants accompany the Blessed Sacrament in processions across the United States, aiming to deepen devotion to the Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life.
It involves daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, processions, and service, engaging communities in prayer and witness to Christ’s Real Presence.
The 2025 pilgrimage began May 18 in Indianapolis. So far, it has stopped in Illinois and Iowa. The Holy Eucharist will travel 3,340 miles and through 21 dioceses across the country.
The pilgrimage will conclude June 22 in Los Angeles on the Feast of Corpus Christi, which celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
On the national journey, the walking pilgrimages will be accompanied by the presence of the Blessed Sacrament and a team of priests.
For the longer sections between cities, the walking pilgrimage will not process with the Eucharist exposed so solemnly but rather a priest or a deacon will carry the Blessed Sacrament in a simple monstrance without a canopy.
The pilgrimage marks the end of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative by the U.S. Catholic bishops, launched in 2022, to renew and deepen Catholics’ understanding of and devotion to the Eucharist as the Real Presence of Jesus Christ.
