RELATED: Faith in the Streets: Eucharistic Procession Stops Traffic in Midtown Manhattan<\/a><\/p>\nFather\u00a0Robert Whelan, pastor at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, explained\u00a0before the procession\u00a0that the idea came\u00a0from Father\u00a0Sean Suckiel, pastor\u00a0of\u00a0Holy Family, who cited\u00a0the\u00a0participation he had seen in other Eucharistic processions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEucharistic\u00a0processions\u00a0are\u00a0making the old new again,\u201d Father\u00a0Suckiel\u00a0said\u00a0as he vested for the\u00a0veneration. \u201cYoung people today are talking about these processions, how it\u2019s life-changing,\u00a0so why not do it as a deanery?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
An opening\u00a0prayer\u00a0inside Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament,\u00a0led by\u00a0Auxiliary Bishop\u00a0Emeritus\u00a0Octavio Cisneros,\u00a0began the evening\u2019s adoration. Bishop Cisneros\u00a0reminded the congregants that \u201cthis is not just a walk but an act of\u00a0worship.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Eucharist\u00a0was\u00a0then\u00a0placed in a monstrance\u00a0that was carried\u00a0outside.\u00a0The\u00a0procession\u00a0began just after 5:50 p.m. with\u00a0Bishop Cisneros,\u00a0the first of several priests to carry the monstrance\u00a0under a canopy\u00a0held aloft by\u00a0attendees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
About\u00a020\u00a0minutes\u00a0later,\u00a0and\u00a0after walking a\u00a0half mile, the\u00a0procession\u00a0stopped at St.\u00a0Josaphat\u00a0for a\u00a015-minute\u00a0benediction\u00a0on the\u00a0building\u2019s\u00a0front\u00a0steps. As the monstrance was blessed with incense,\u00a0the sun, which had been mostly hidden behind darkened clouds, broke through\u00a0in bright light.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Father\u00a0Whelan\u00a0said in\u00a0his earlier\u00a0interview that he\u00a0hoped\u00a0the\u00a0procession\u00a0would make\u00a0an impact on Bayside residents.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0exactly what happened when Lynn, who did\u00a0not\u00a0want to give her last name,\u00a0stepped out of\u00a0Vittorio\u2019s Butcher Shop on 35th\u00a0Avenue\u00a0to watch the\u00a0Eucharist pass by.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m not even Catholic,\u00a0but this is good,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u00a0gives people\u00a0hope. To see people come together,\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0what we need.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the\u00a0procession, which\u00a0stretched\u00a0over\u00a0two blocks,\u00a0snaked through side streets\u00a0and stopped\u00a0buses\u00a0and cars\u00a0as it\u00a0crossed\u00a0busy Bell\u00a0Boulevard,\u00a0the praying of the\u00a0rosary and the songs of worship continued.\u00a0The procession reached Sacred Heart of Jesus Church just before\u00a07 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of rejuvenating the\u00a0church,\u201d Rosetta Maguire said\u00a0as she\u00a0observed\u00a0the people going into the church\u00a0for a final benediction. \u201cTo\u00a0show our solidarity with our faith and our religion and just proud to be Catholic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the Eucharist was removed from\u00a0the\u00a0monstrance and placed in the\u00a0tabernacle by\u00a0Father\u00a0Marc Swartvagher,\u00a0presiding dean of Queens Deanery 5 and pastor at St. Kevin\u00a0Parish, Father\u00a0Suckiel\u00a0thanked\u00a0the congregants\u00a0for their participation and asked for\u00a0another acknowledgment of appreciation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s also thank Jesus for leading us today,\u201d he said\u00a0to\u00a0resounding applause.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fr. Ralph Edel leads the Queens Deanery 5 Eucharistic procession through Bayside on May 28 (Photo: Michael Rizzo)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-251371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Fr.-Ralph-Edel-leads-the-Queens-Deanery-5-Eucharistic-procession-through-Bayside-on-May-28-Photo-by-.jpeg\"\/)
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Fr.-Ralph-Edel-leads-the-Queens-Deanery-5-Eucharistic-procession-through-Bayside-on-May-28-Photo-by-.jpeg\")
Fr. Ralph Edel leads the Queens Deanery 5 Eucharistic procession through Bayside on May 28 (Photo: Michael Rizzo)<\/p>\n