Imagine amid the turbulent year of 2020, a nationwide, non-political movement promoting prayer and peace.

Tim Ferriter is among those Catholics working on Unite Our Nation, which has quickly expanded nationwide from its founding in Madison, Wisconsin earlier this summer.

“It’s a Holy Spirit-driven event designed with a peaceful, patriotic approach,” he told the Arizona Catholic Tribune. “It’s a prayerful procession to bring peace to communities where there may have been a riot or looting or something like that."

The first event in Madison in August attracted 3,000 people to the state Capitol and there are similar processions planned for cities nationwide this fall. In footage of the march are buildings still boarded up from protests earlier this year.

Ferriter, who heads a Catholic media company, is part of the effort to bring Unite Our Nation marches to Arizona in the coming months. 

“We were originally looking at an Oct. 11 date but our bishop asked us to hold off a little bit longer because of COVID-19,” Ferriter said. “So we’re looking at a December/January date.”

With COVID-19, racial unrest, and economic challenges, it’s been a rough year for everyone, including Catholics, he said, and many people have not been able to attend church in person.

“What we want to do is realty bring the Eucharist to the community in a time of challenge and kind of bring prayer in our procession,” Ferriter said. “One of the ideas is to say the Rosary in the procession as we do stops. Each one of those Hail Marys would be for one of the states, praying for the 50 United States. “

One of the lessons from COVID-19 has been that the church is much more than a brick and mortar building, he said, adding, “It’s a community. It’s the body of Christ, which is all of us together.”

Although Unite Our Nation is being organized by the laity, it has the support and involvement of the church leadership.

“We’re all taking part in this church,” Ferriter said. “When we bring the Eucharist out of the church and into the street, it’s bringing Jesus into the streets and praying for peace.”

He hopes the movement will re-energize Catholics after a particularly rough year.

“It gets us out in the streets in a peaceful procession,” he said.  “A lot of people in their own faith lives, don’t really come out of their church with a procession. Maybe they will be inspired by a prayerful procession to bring peace.”