Vatican City, Jun 10, 2012 / 10:09 am
Pope Benedict XVI praised the "lively tradition" of holding solemn processions with the Blessed Sacrament "through the streets and squares" on the Feast of Corpus Christi.
"The Catholic Church professes worship of the Eucharist 'not only during Mass, but also outside of its celebration, preserving with the utmost diligence the consecrated hosts, presenting them for the solemn veneration of the Christian faithful, carrying them in procession with the joy of the Christian crowd'," he said, quoting his predecessor Pope Paul VI's 1965 encyclical "Mysterium Fidei."
Pope Benedict addressed tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square June 10 to say the midday Marian prayer, the Angelus. Today's Feast of Corpus Christi commemorates the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist and has been celebrated universally since 1264. While the Vatican celebrated the feast on Thursday, many dioceses worldwide transfer it to the following Sunday.
The Pope told pilgrims that the annual feast "renews in Christians the joy and the gratitude for the Eucharistic presence of Jesus" in the midst of his people. It is, he said, "a great act of public worship" that reminds everybody "the Lord remains present beyond the time of the celebration" of Mass. This is why in churches, from earliest times, "the most sacred place is precisely where the Eucharist is kept" in the tabernacle.