Franklin D. Smith to Bp. Fulton J. Public masses and devotions filled the schedule. Every International Eucharistic Congress has a profound impact on the life of the Church, even if this is not always easy to measure.
The impact of the Congress of Dublin will be all the greater, since it will be the fiftieth IEC, coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. This is therefore an occasion to remember an ecclesial event that, in continuity with the tradition of the Church, was able to welcome the positive aspects of modernity and to evaluate them in the light of the Gospel, for the sake of proclaiming salvation to the women and men of our time.
Therefore, the Congress of , precisely because of its international character, can become an important means of promoting an exemplary and fruitful celebration of the conciliar Liturgy; a renewed catechesis concerning the Eucharistic mystery and its social, ethical and cultural implications; and an ever more authentic worship of the Mystery of Faith, the source and summit of ecclesial life.
Apart from the significance of this particular anniversary, International Eucharistic Congresses have always had an impact on the life of the Church. The following are some memorable aspects that have been historically demonstrated. The centrality of the celebration. Thus, at the time of Saint Pius X , they encouraged the effort to lower the age for children to receive their First Communion and to promote frequent communion.
Between the two World Wars they supported the missionary commitment of the Church by meeting for the first time in continents outside Europe and focusing on the Eucharist as a force for evangelization. Beginning with the Congress of Munich in Bavaria in and the reflection developed at the Second Vatican Council , in a fruitful integration of the liturgical movement, Eucharistic Congresses have contributed to a fuller understanding of the Eucharistic Mystery.
This was shown in: the appreciation of holy communion as full participation in the celebration of the Eucharist; the rediscovery of the celebrating assembly; a deepening appreciation of the relationship between the Table of the Word and the Table of the Bread; the emphasis on the social dimension of the sacrament; the connection of the Eucharist with the other sacraments; the renewal of Eucharistic worship outside of Mass…. Among the challenges still to be faced, we can mention here the need to involve and integrate into the movement of liturgical renewal and the new evangelisation the various forms of popular piety linked to the Eucharist, as well as the associations that under different headings draw their inspiration from the Eucharist movements for perpetual or nocturnal adoration, the Confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament….
The commitment to a constantly deeper appreciation of the Eucharistic mystery continues, even as we look to the coming event of the Congress in Dublin, which will have at its centre a reference to the Eucharist as the mystery of communion with Christ and with our brothers and sisters.
The Eucharist and evangelisation. This is true not only in countries which have traditionally been the focus of missionary activity, but also in those countries evangelised long ago. One thinks, for example, of Europe, where some countries marked by a centuries-old Christian culture are now experiencing a progressive falling away from the faith, a distancing from the common roots of Christianity and a growing split between Gospel and culture.
To this end, Eucharistic Congresses can be the privileged setting for a more deeply understood link between Eucharist and evangelisation, or, in other words, between the convocation of the Church in the Eucharistic assembly and the mission entrusted by Christ himself to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom.
The new evangelisation has been and will be an ongoing challenge for Eucharistic Congresses. Moreover, the Gospel and the Eucharist remain the essential means of bringing salvation to the ends of the earth.
It is a religious gathering held for the purpose of increasing faith in the Blessed Sacrament and promoting Eucharistic devotion. The National Eucharistic Congress — planned for the summer of at a site yet to be determined — will be the culmination of a project called the National Eucharistic Revival , which is being commissioned by the U.
Conference of Catholic Bishops. The revival comes after years of falling Mass attendance and polls showing declining faith among American Catholics in the Real Presence of Christ in the sacrament.
Plans for the project were outlined to the bishops during their general assembly in June by Auxiliary Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of St. Paul and Minneapolis, chairman of the planning committee. The revival will get underway next summer. The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is one of the principal dogmas of the Catholic Faith and is therefore of paramount importance as the most precious treasure that Christ has left to His Church as the centre of Catholic worship and as the source of Christian piety.
The main advantages of these congresses have been in the concentration of the thoughts of the faithful upon the mystery of the altar, and in making known to them the means by which devotion towards the Holy Eucharist may be promoted and implanted in the hearts of the people.
The promoters of Eucharistic congresses believe that, if during recent years devotion to the Holy Eucharist has become more widespread, if works of adoration, Confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament , and the practice of frequent Communion have spread rapidly and extensively, it must be ascribed in great part to these gatherings.
The idea at first was merely local and met with few adherents, but it grew from year to year with an ever-increasing importance. When from the 9th to the 13th of September, , the fourth congress met at Fribourg in Switzerland , under the presidency of the famous Mgr. Mermillod, Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva , his influence and example drew to the platform members of the Cantonal Government, officials of the municipality of Fribourg, officers of the army, judges of the courts, while thousands of Catholics from all over Europe joined in the formal procession.
Toulouse , in the South of France , was the place of meeting of the fifth congress, from the 20th to the 25th of June, 1S86, and about ecclesiastics and 30, laymen were present at the closing exercises. The sixth congress met in Paris , July, , and the great memorial church of the Sacred Heart on Monmartre was the centre of the proceedings.
Antwerp, in Belgium , entertained the next congress, August, ; an immense altar of repose was erected in the Place de Meir, and it was estimated that , persons were gathered about it when Cardinal Goossens , Archbishop of Mechlin , gave the solemn Benediction.
Special importance was attached to the eighth congress, which went to Jerusalem to hold its sessions from the 14th to the 21st of May, Here the reunion of the Orient was advocated, and an adoration of the Blessed Sacrament was preached on the very spot where tradition says the Agony in the Garden took place.
Next year the congress was held at Reims , July, and the different churches of the East were largely represented. A place was given in the deliberations for the first time to the study of social questions affecting the working classes. Paray-le-Monial, the city of the Sacred Heart, September, , was the scene of the tenth congress; and the eleventh, the best organized and most numerously attended of the series, met at Brussels , July, This gathering was notable for the number of priests who took part in the procession.
When the thirteenth congress met at Angers , September, , a special section was formed for young men to read and discuss papers having reference to such works as young men ought to undertake for the promotion of devotion to the Holy Eucharist and the solution of social questions. Pope Pius X having expressed a wish that the Eucharistic Congress should be held in Rome , the delegates met there, June,
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