Traffic came to a standstill along Beaver Ruin Road in the northeast metro area of Atlanta 25 October as Catholics, representing several parishes and speaking multiple languages, followed on foot the Blessed Sacrament as a sign of devotion.
The “Pilgrims of Hope” procession linked St Patrick Church and Holy Vietnamese Martyrs Church in Norcross and Our Lady of Americas Mission, Lilburn, in a prayerful march defending an attack on the participants’ most sacred beliefs.
Drivers took photos of the passing event, as organisers handed out rosaries to people stopped in their cars.
Thousands of people took part in the walk, prompted by a so-called “black mass” planned by the Satanic Temple of Atlanta for the same day.
Ighocha Macokor, 41, a member of the Knights of Columbus at St Patrick Church said he was walking in his first procession to “stand against evil” and to show the faith to people passing by.
Meanwhile, lawyers working for the Archdiocese of Atlanta received a response from the organisers of a so-called “black mass” scheduled for the same Friday.
The organisers confirmed they intended the event as entertainment and possessed no consecrated host.
Concern about the event and its possible sacrilege of a consecrated host prompted the Archdiocese of Atlanta to call for a special day of prayer, reparation and public support for belief in the Eucharist.
Pedro Ulloa and his wife, Flor, and their two grown daughters walked in the thick of the procession. Wearing two crosses around his neck, he said the show of faith allows others to “see the good things about Jesus Christ.”
Concerned about the event and its possible sacrilege of a consecrated host, the Archdiocese of Atlanta called for a special day of prayer, reparation and public support for belief in the Eucharist.
On the afternoon of the walk Atlanta Archbishop Gregory J Hartmayer updated the Catholic community, saying lawyers working for the archdiocese were told by the Satanic Temple that organisers of the “black mass” intended it as entertainment and possessed no consecrated host.
The group “defended their right to express their beliefs by mocking ours,” said the archbishop.
“While there will always be people who mock and blaspheme Our Lord in the public square, we know too, that he will be defended by all of us who love him.”
