A traveling monstrance, a key element of both the Year of the Eucharist and the Diocese of Raleigh’s Centennial Year, was at St. Peter Catholic Church in Greenville this week. The traveling monstrance is one of the highlights of a year in which the diocese is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its founding in 1924. In making stops at parishes throughout the diocese, the monstrance serves not only to unite the people and parishes across the more than 32,000 square miles of the diocese but also to focus on the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist during a year that will also see the National Eucharistic Congress this July in Indianapolis, Indiana.
As Father Jim Magee, pastor of St. Peter Church noted, many parishes in the eastern part of the state, including St. Peter, are actually older than the diocese. “While our diocese has been formally in existence for 100 years,” said Magee, “There have always been people in eastern North Carolina drawn to the Eucharist.”
The Holy Hour at St. Peter highlighted another important aspect of both the past and the future of the diocese: Catholic youth. Father Magee emphasized that his parish has strong ties to the early Catholic Church in our state. The original parish was formed when Servant of God Father Thomas Price, “the Tar Heel Apostle,” purchased a building in the late 1800’s.
“What will help us as a parish and a diocese and a Catholic people over the next 100 years, is nurturing the faith and love of Christ in our young people,” Father Magee said.
The St. Peter Church Holy Hour had a youth focus, with music provided by St. Peter Catholic School alumnus Taylor Loesner. A large number of students and families participated in the Holy Hour and stayed afterwards for refreshments and fellowship.
The traveling monstrance was an important part of the Eucharistic Congress, which took place in October 2023. This year, after traveling through the Raleigh Deanery, beginning at Sacred Heart Church, which was the cathedral for the diocese from 1924 until 2017, the monstrance is traveling to parishes, schools, homes and neighborhoods across eastern North Carolina to be a central part of similar celebrations marking the rich history and bright future of our Catholic faith in the Diocese of Raleigh.
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