Amsterdam to See Its First Eucharistic Procession Since 1578

Zenit reports on Amsterdam's first Corpus Christi procession since 1578.

The procession will begin in the Church of Our Lady.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, MAY 31, 2004 (Zenit.org).- For the first time since 1578, a procession of the Blessed Sacrament will take place on the streets of Amsterdam on the feast of Corpus Christi, a Dutch Catholic newspaper reported.

The Eucharistic event is taking place June 13 at the initiative of the Church of Our Lady, entrusted to priests of Opus Dei, the Katholiek Nieuwsblad reported. Bishop Joseph Punt of Haarlem will preside.

"Since 1578, the year in which Dutch political leaders joined the Reformation cause, the procession of the Miracle was prohibited," one of the parish's priests told the newspaper. That procession was in remembrance of a Eucharistic miracle that occurred in the city in March 1345.

"However, following the modification of the legislation in 1989, religious manifestations in public are permitted," he added. The procession is neither a "provocation," nor a "sign of triumphalism," but "a continuation of Amsterdam's Eucharistic tradition," the priest added.

The motto of the procession, which all the city's parishes are invited to join, will be "Amsterdam, City of the Eucharist."

© ZENIT 2004; Ref. ZE04053106