Crowds flock to Arundel for Corpus Christi

HUNDREDS of Catholics from across England gathered in Arundel, West Sussex, last week for a special celebration of Corpus Christi in the Year in the Eucharist.
The event began with an early evening High Mass in the Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St Philip Howard, celebrated by the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton. In his homily, Bishop Kieran Conry explained that the Eucharist brought Catholics in Britain into communion with the world’s poor.
After the final blessing, the bishop, bearing the monstrance, led the procession over the Carpet of Flowers. The carpet, which was prepared by 40 people over 60 hours, was this year laid out with Eucharistic motifs and words celebrating the 40th anniversary of the diocese.
The bishop was followed in procession by priests, members of the papal orders in full regalia, and hundreds of lay people, many carrying embroidered banners.
Some visitors were dismayed by the absence of a canopy over the Blessed Sacrament. The tradition was apparently abandoned on health and safety grounds.
The procession snaked slowly down the road to Arundel Castle in the strong early summer evening sunlight. It stopped inside the castle quadrangle, where the bishop placed the monstrance on an outdoor altar. Pilgrims knelt as the bishop presided over Bene diction. The procession then returned to the cathedral for another, final, Benediction.
The Corpus Christi procession in Arundel dates back to the Middle Ages. It was suppressed during the Reformation but revived by Henry, the 15th Duke of Norfolk, in 1883, who had been inspired by the colour ful celebration of the feast in continental cathedrals.
This year has seen a marked increase in Corpus Christi processions across Britain, in response to the late Pope John Paul II’s appeal in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia for greater reverence for the Blessed Sacrament.