South Bend, Ind., May 30, 2010 / 12:11 pm
St. Matthew Cathedral will be the site for a special premiere event hosted by the Office of Hispanic Ministry on Sunday, June 6. The feast of Corpus Christi will be celebrated there with Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades at an all-Spanish Mass at 1 p.m., followed by a Eucharistic Procession through the streets of South Bend.
The procession, first blessed by Bishop Rhoades in the cathedral, will track a 1.7 mile route through the streets of South Bend from Dubail and High to Franklin and Culvert streets where it will culminate at Our Lady of Hungary Parish with Benediction.
The route follows the neighborhood streets surrounding the cathedral where close to 350 Hispanic families reside. Enid Roman-DeJesus, director of the diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry, said not only is this event a celebration of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ but that, “The bishop invites the community to bring Christ into the streets of the Spanish community (where some have fallen away from the Church). ... We hope they will walk with the bishop. It’s a call back home.”
The bishop will stop at four predetermined sites where there will be communal prayer and blessing of the houses and community there. Neighbors along the route have been invited to set up tables displaying favorite saints so as to symbolize that “the saints and people are receiving the Lord.”