After a break due to the virus, the Parish of St Mary’s, Batley once again was hosting the annual Batley Torchlight Procession, led by Bishop Marcus.
This year, we follow a new simplified route starting at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School and ending at the nearby St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church.
The Torchlight Procession was started in 1951 by Father Gallon so that parishioners could take part in what is both an act of public worship and a display of witness to our faith. After the Rosary was said at the Church the procession; preceded by a statue of Our Lady and a loudspeaker van playing appropriate Hymns got underway. The original route went on Cemetery Road and then along Wellington Street turning left at the Yorkshire Bank onto Commercial Street and finishing at Market Place where there would be a short service followed by Benediction. It is said that in the early days Market Place would be full before the tail end of the procession had even reached Commercial Street, in later years the route was shortened by not going on Wellington Street but entering Commercial Street at its other end. From the start, it was hugely popular attracting people from all over the diocese and beyond.
