National Eucharistic Pilgrimage to make 2-day stop in Pocatello this week

POCATELLO — A national pilgrimage celebrating Catholic faith and its belief in the divine presence of Jesus will be in Pocatello on Thursday and Friday.

Eucharistic pilgrims are walking four separate pre-planned routes across the country, beginning earlier this month in California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Texas, according to The Associated Press. The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is an attempted revival of a U.S. Catholic tradition that went away in the mid-1900s.

Pilgrims will be joined along the way by smaller local groups. The pilgrimage will conclude with the four groups converging on Indianapolis in July.

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage will officially begin its visit in eastern Idaho at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, when the pilgrims will be at the St. John’s Catholic Center at Idaho State University, according to a news release from the Holy Sprit Catholic Community.

As part of the festivities on the ISU campus, The Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist — a local Roman Catholic congregation — will give a presentation.

The pilgrimage will continue with Thursday afternoon stops at Caldwell Park, where priests from several eastern Idaho parishes will distribute communion and give a blessing to the pilgrims.

At 8:15 p.m., the pilgrimage will move to St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, which will hold a Holy Adoration — a “public exposition of the Eucharist,” the release says. The pilgrims will remain at St. Anthony’s in Holy Adoration until a 7 a.m. Friday mass.

Following mass, the pilgrims will head to the Salt Lake City Diocese by way of Preston.