A pilgrim receives Communion July 21, 2024, during the final Mass of the National Eucharistic Congress at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
INDIANAPOLIS — As five days of the National Eucharistic Congress concluded with one final revival and a beautiful solemn Mass in Lucas Oil Stadium -- Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., stood in Lucas Oil Stadium.
"I have a question for you," he told the crowd. "This is the 10th National Eucharistic Congress -- do you think we should do an 11th one?"
Some 60,000 congress participants -- representing 50 U.S. states, 17 countries, and various Eastern and Western churches, and speaking over 40 languages -- cheered wildly in the stadium.
They also again rose to their feet to give the U.S. Catholic bishops an enthusiastic standing ovation for making possible the five-day congress with its impact sessions, breakout sessions, special events, revival nights with Eucharistic adoration and Benediction and beautifully celebrated reverent Masses.
The event reflected the diversity of a church all united in the same Eucharistic Lord and eager to use their gifts for a new Pentecost in the church.
The first day of the July 17-21 congress began with an evening revival as the 30 perpetual pilgrims, who had walked the four National Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes, took their final official steps of their eight-week journey into the stadium carrying icons of each route's respective patron saints -- St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, St. Junipero Serra, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and the Blessed Virgin Mary -- that were put around the altar where the Blessed Sacrament was placed.
"How will we know that we are experiencing Eucharistic revival?" Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S., asked in his keynote speech July 17, encouraging everyone to surrender their hearts to the Lord over the next few days. "When we are truly revived by the Eucharist," he said, "then our encounter with Christ's real presence in the sacrament opens us to an encounter with him in the rest of our life" and then "spills over in our daily life, a life of relating to others, our way of seeing others."
Every day of the congress began with most congress-goers joining in beautifully and reverently celebrated Eucharistic liturgies in the stadium -- including a July 20 Holy Qurbana, the Syro-Malabar form of the Eucharistic liturgy, prayed in English. Additional morning and evening Masses at nearby sites in different languages, such as Spanish or Vietnamese, or in different forms, such as the Byzantine rite or the older usage of the Roman rite.
Three days of the congress, July 18-20, were split between seven morning impact sessions and nearly 20 afternoon breakout sessions on a variety of topics meant to form, equip and inspire people, including clergy, to live more deeply their faith in light of Jesus making himself truly present in the Eucharist -- and how to practically bring what they have learned into their parishes, ministries, groups and families.
The exhibit halls in the Indiana Convention Center were packed throughout the congress, as long lines formed for exhibits such as the Shroud of Turin or Eucharistic miracles. Religious sisters provided a kind of spiritual air traffic control that guided people to the lengthy confession lines.
The convention center was also a place where the spontaneity of joy could be seen and felt. Young people marched through chanting their love for Jesus, while further on, a group of Catholic women, dressed in traditional apparel from Cameroon, sang and danced their love for Jesus and Mary to the delight of people who gathered around them.
Congress-goers had the opportunity to attend off-site events such as The Catholic Project's panel discussion July 19 that explored the challenges of navigating the dating landscape as Catholics.
Tens of thousands of congress-goers at the revivals -- and the liturgies as well -- eagerly joined their voices in singing the beautiful hymns and chants, both traditional and contemporary, in English, Spanish, Latin and other languages. The congress saw the musicianship of Dave and Lauren Moore, Sarah Kroger and Matt Maher, as well as the talents of the men's ensemble Floriani and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
"The reverence was just awe-inspiring, and that's something I would like to take back to our parish," Deacon Robb Caputo of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, told OSV News.
The nightly revival sessions created a sensory experience of awe around the Eucharistic Lord, as tens of thousands prayed in silent contemplation before the Eucharist on the altar -- illuminated in the dark stadium by spotlights. Adoring Jesus in the stadium, concluding with Benediction, was the pinnacle movement of each evening.
Keynote speakers and testimonies helped keep people's eyes fixed on Jesus' personal love for them and his desire to be close to them.
One such nightly revival, focused on healing, indicated the problem with Catholic belief in the Eucharist -- was more about the heart than the head, and needed Catholics to repent of their indifference to Jesus.
"Knowledge can make us great, but only love can make a saint," said Father Mike Schmitz, the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, priest known for chart-topping podcasts "The Bible in a Year" and "The Catechism in a Year." Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, who survived four wars in the Middle East, recounted how in the midst of her own personal suffering she heard Jesus say in her heart: "That even on the cross and through the cross, we can still choose to love."
Jonathan Roumie, the actor famous for his portrayal of Jesus in the hit miniseries "The Chosen," told the audience at the final revival night July 20 after reading Jesus' Bread of Life discourse from John 6, "The Eucharist for me is healing. The Eucharist for me is peace, the Eucharist for me is my grounding. The Eucharist for me is his heart within me."
Congress organizers also made intentional efforts to be inclusive of families and those with disabilities, particularly those with sensory disorders, so they could also experience the congress and participate fully in the experience.
Murielle and Dominic Blanchard of Gallup, New Mexico, navigated the congress with six children aged 8 and under, including 20-month twins, and a baby on the way. They said the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium was key for them, because it provided both formation for their older children and had space for the twins to play.
Throughout the congress, the historic and stately St. John's Catholic Church across from the Indiana Convention Center's main entrance fulfilled its role as a spiritual hub. A steady flow of pilgrims came and went from the main church during 24-hour adoration throughout the congress. It had times for silence as well as times geared toward families, where children were invited to get close to the Eucharist, put a flower in a vase near the monstrance, and just adore as beautiful, simple melodies lifted up the packed church in prayer.
More than 1,200 religious sisters and brothers, 1,170 priests, 630 deacons, 610 seminarians and 200 bishops participated in the congress, according to congress organizers. At a press conference July 19, Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez said he had never seen anything like the congress, as a non-papal event, in his 35 years of priesthood.
"You can sense the energy of what's happening here, which is touching hearts," he said, adding the experience was making him think about how to respond to the need for the church's sacraments to be more accessible.
The highlight came July 20 as tens of thousands of Catholics followed behind the truck-pulled, flower-rimmed float carrying the Blessed Sacrament accompanied by Bishop Cozzens and Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson. They walked 10 blocks from the convention center through downtown Indianapolis to the Indiana War Memorial Plaza for what Bishop Cozzens said "might be the largest Eucharistic procession in the country in decades."
Nancy Leuhrmann of Cincinnati told OSV News the experience, which culminated in Eucharistic adoration and Benediction at the plaza, was "really wonderful, seeing all the people just quiet, reverent and joyful." Leuhrmann said the security presence didn't have much to do and she noted the officers thanked the crowd for making their jobs easy.
At the sending-forth Mass July 21, Pope Francis' special envoy to the congress, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, delivered a homily with warmth, joy and humor that made participants both laugh and feel inspired as he told them, "A Eucharistic people is a missionary and evangelizing people."
"We should not keep Jesus to ourselves," he said, exhorting them not to use their time in church to escape others, but to "share Jesus' tender love" with "the weary, the hungry and suffering ... the lost, confused and weak."
"Go and share Jesus' gift of reconciliation and peace to those who are divided," he said, emphasizing, "Let us proclaim Jesus joyfully and zealously for the life of the world!"
Bishop Cozzens revealed there would be another National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in 2025 from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, and possibly an earlier National Eucharistic Congress than 2033.
But he invited people to take this experience of the congress and -- echoing Cardinal Tagle's call for Eucharistic "missionary conversion" -- join the congress's "Walk with One" initiative.
"Commit yourself to walking with one person," he said. "Commit yourself to becoming a Eucharistic missionary, someone who lives deeply a Eucharistic life, and having received that gift, allows themselves to be given as a gift."
— Peter Jesserer Smith, OSV News
Congress attendees 'ready for everyone in the church to get on fire'
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Congress attendees 'ready for everyone in the church to get on fire'
INDIANAPOLIS — Even before the July 21 announcement that National Eucharistic Congress organizers are considering holding another congress in just a few years, 9-year-old Thomas Gangestad had prayed for it.
Having heard this was the first time a national Eucharistic congress had been held in 83 years, he was afraid this was the only chance in his lifetime to experience what he did over five days in Indianapolis.
He was certain he wanted to bring his future children if he got married, he said -- prompting his parents' smiles -- but, upon reflection, he added he definitely would go again if it were held in four years, when he'd be 13.
Justin and Meghan Gangestad of Brainerd, Minnesota, brought Thomas and his five younger siblings to Indianapolis for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, held July 17-21 in the Indiana Convention Center and adjacent Lucas Oil Stadium, home to the Indianapolis Colts.
As a former FOCUS missionary, Meghan, 33, has seen the broader church in the United States, as well as "the fire of the church" for Jesus, and "I just want that for them," she said.
The day before, she had walked with her second-oldest son, James, at the front of the congress's massive Eucharistic procession through downtown Indianapolis, with other children who had recently received their first Communion.
"I think God plants little seeds with things, and this is just one of those seeds for them, for the future," she said.
The congress drew more than 50,000 registrants from across the United States. As it closed after five days of dynamic speakers, music and worship, many attendees expressed hope, gratitude and vigor to be the "Eucharistic missionaries" congress speakers and leaders called them to be.
The event was a highlight of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative of the U.S. bishops to increase understanding of and inspire deeper love for Jesus in the Eucharist. It launched the revival's third year, the Year of Mission, which includes the bishops' "Walk with One" initiative that encourages Catholics to actively share their love of Jesus with someone who does not know him or who no longer practices the Catholic faith.
The congress exceeded the expectations of Marie Settles of Indianapolis, who brought four of her five children, ages 11 to 2, to the congress for the weekend, but who said she wishes she would have gotten five-day passes.
"We love Jesus so much, and it was really exciting to see the revamping of the church and the Eucharist and just to get more on fire," she said. "I'm ready for everyone in the church to get on fire, because I feel like it's been a slow coming. And this is just getting everyone back into it, and bringing a wave of Catholics back to the church."
Her takeaway is "spread the good news," said Settles, 35. "Evangelize. Talk about the Gospel more. I feel like we don't do that enough. We do it in our home and with our friends and family that are already Catholic, but to bring it out to the world. The whole Eucharistic procession just really set us on fire was just really cool."
Femila Riguera, 74, from Arlington, Virginia, left the congress believing "we are really commissioned to spread the word" and that God "answers our prayers.”
For Riguera, being at the congress was an answered prayer. She did not know for certain if she would be able to attend the congress until July 16, the eve of the congress. She had asked people to go with her but they were unable to, mostly due to work, she said.
In 2016, she had attended the 51st International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu, Philippines, and felt she could not miss this moment. So, she kept on praying. Then her grandson told her “we are going,” and he picked her up at 1 a.m. to drive 10 hours to Indianapolis.
“I know the Real Presence,” said Riguera, who tries to go to Mass daily. “I truly believe that it's there. That's why I'm so thankful every time. … The only way we can be converted is through the Eucharist.”
Deacon Robb Caputo of the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, said that he had been deeply impressed by the reverence he saw people show when receiving the Eucharist at Mass, in contrast to going through the motions or taking the Eucharist for granted.
"(I) found myself in tears almost," he said. "The reverence was just awe-inspiring, and that's something I would like to take back to our parish, and just to preach the fact of how that touched me and how that … the people (who) were receiving were so touched because they truly knew what they were doing and the presence of God."
Families -- including many with infants -- were ubiquitous. According to congress organizers, around 5,000 attendees were under 18.
Murielle and Dominic Blanchard of Gallup, New Mexico, navigated the congress with six children aged 8 and under, including 20-month twins, and a baby on the way. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atrium was key for them, because it provided both faith formation for their older children and space for the twins to play.
"We've had to be really flexible," said Murielle, 31, while her children sprawled on the floor with crayons and coloring pages in the back of Lucas Oil Stadium ahead of the closing Mass. Sometimes the family stayed late for the nighttime revival sessions, and sometimes they missed speakers they would have liked to see, but they plan to revisit parts of the congress online back home, she said.
In attending the congress, the Blanchards' hope was for their kids to have a "concrete experience, where they see all the people, they can feel the energy, they can experience … (that) God is real, and all these people are here because they really love him, just like we say we do," Blanchard said.
"It's been good to be like, we're not just a big family. We're a big Catholic family," she said. "We want to talk more about Jesus in our daily life" and "not hide who we are -- either to our kids or to our friends or to our community."
Blanchard described herself as "not very good with the evangelizing thing," but said that's something she hopes to change as she roots her identity in being a child of God.
"It's really hard for me to be open about my faith, and I know I need to work on that. ... I need to be able to share the good news, and if I really believe that then I need to be joyful."
Hannah Avila, 11, of Nashville, Tennessee, participated with her parents in the congress's family track, Cultivate. Standing in Lucas Oil Stadium before the closing Mass alongside her mother, Sindi Anguiano, she said the experience made her feel "closer to Jesus, and that he'll always be at my side, even in the tough times."
Carla Fernando-Bowling, the director of Catholic Family Life in the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, told OSV News that "an encounter with Jesus strengthened my faith, and I hope that we will bear many fruits for the glory of God."
"What I want to take from this National Eucharistic Congress is the reaffirmation that our Lord is alive and present in the Eucharist and that is the main source, so that we can continue on this path of faith and the mission that he has entrusted to us," she said.
On Saturday night, 41-year-old Marie Noel prayed aloud at the close of Eucharistic adoration, and danced and sang from her stadium seat as the Grammy-nominated Catholic musician Matt Maher played his hit "Alive Again." For her, the congress rejuvenated her work with youth faith formation in the Archdiocese of New York.
"It was amazing!" she exclaimed. "It meant freedom!"
Bishop Donald E. DeGrood of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said the congress was "like a Catholic Disneyland," but unlike the actual Disneyland, "it's not magic, it's real."
"The real presence of Christ is so palpable," he told OSV News, pointing especially to Eucharistic adoration during the evening revival sessions. "Everybody's there just adoring the Lord, and what's so clear to me is that this is heaven. Heaven is contemplation of what is real and true and good. And everything draws our right hearts to that."
— Maria Wiering, OSV News
God is 'strongly connected' to disability community, access to Eucharist is essential
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God is 'strongly connected' to disability community, access to Eucharist is essential
INDIANAPOLIS — God is "strongly connected with the disability community," whose members can "move hearts" as missionary disciples -- and access to the Eucharist for people with disabilities is essential, said a pastoral expert.
Charleen Katra, executive director of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, shared her thoughts during a July 18 breakout session she led at the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis.
Her presentation, titled "The Eucharist: Ensuring Access for All," focused specifically on sacramental preparation and reception of the Eucharist, although the underlying principles of pastoral inclusion apply to all the sacraments, said Katra.
She began the session by noting that the U.S. Catholic bishops first issued what she called a "foundational" pastoral statement on pastoral ministry to the disability community back in 1978 -- some 12 years before the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, became federal law. The National Catholic Partnership on Disability was established in 1982.
Katra quoted from the pastoral statement, in which the bishops stressed, "It is essential that all forms of the liturgy be completely accessible to persons with disabilities, since these forms are the essence of the spiritual tie that binds the Christian community together. To exclude members of the parish from these celebrations in the life of the Church, even by passive omission, is to deny the reality of the community."
"I feel that the bishops were very astute in writing this (pastoral statement) for the church," said Katra, noting that the document "basically said very similar things for the church" as what the ADA later required in a broader social context.
"And that was really that the doors of the church be open to people with disabilities," said Katra. "But even more importantly, or I would say equally important, were that the hearts of the people inside the church be open to receive persons with disabilities."
The bishops' 1995 "Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities," revised in 2017, provides specific instruction on the preparation and administration of all the sacraments, serving as a key resource for "pastoral, ecclesiastical (and) catechetical ministry in particular," Katra said.
She noted that "every baptized Catholic has three rights: to be educated in your faith, to celebrate the sacraments and to respond to God's call," as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states (1269).
Yet obstacles still prevent full inclusion of people with disabilities in the life of the church, as well as society, said Katra.
"We know all this, the bishops have spoken, NCPD exists, (so) why still are there so many barriers seemingly in our lives and in our world, even in the church in 2024?" she asked, pointing to news headlines in the past decade describing how people with disabilities were denied the Eucharist.
In April 2011, then-11-year-old Kevin Castro was reportedly denied his first holy Communion at a Texas church due to his cerebral palsy. Three years earlier, then 13-year-old Adam Race had been prevented from attending Mass at his parish church by a court restraining order, due to behavior resulting from severe autism.
"These headlines were taken from not that long ago," said Katra. "We always have to question: Is something that we're doing … helpful or is it hurtful?"
Citing the bishops' sacramental guidelines, Katra said that both people with and without disabilities, having received appropriate sacramental preparation, need to be able to "distinguish the body of Christ from ordinary food" and to "discern between right and wrong."
Those guidelines also state that "cases of doubt should be resolved in favor of the right of the Catholic to receive the sacrament" and that "the existence of a disability is not considered in and of itself as disqualifying a person from receiving Holy Communion."
Katra said her office had assisted the U.S. bishops in their 2017 update to the guidelines, which included what she called "three major changes" -- gluten-free options for receiving holy Communion for those with celiac disease and similar conditions; clarification that holy Communion under either species is not to be administered through a feeding tube; and instructions on administering the sacrament to those with dementia.
Those with dementia walk "a painful path," said Katra. "They knew and believed in the Real Presence all their lives. And now … our brain is not working as efficiently as it used to."
The guidelines call for "a presumption in favor of the individual's ability to distinguish between Holy Communion and regular food," specifying that "Holy Communion should continue to be offered as long as possible" while exhorting ministers to "carry out their ministry with a special patience."
"We never discount catechesis just because someone has a disability or someone else maybe has dementia now," said Katra. "And you always err in favor of the person once you prepare (the individual) or once we know that they once believed."
In terms of sacramental preparation, Katra urged session attendees to "adapt, adapt, adapt."
She highlighted several strategies that adopt a multisensory, pastorally sensitive approach to catechesis -- among them, the use of social narratives, or personalized stories in text and graphics that explain common interactions and skills; practice for holy Communion at home with unconsecrated hosts; and appropriate reliance on visuals and gestures in place of the spoken word.
"If someone cannot say 'amen' aloud like you and I might be able to do, this would be another option -- just to teach someone to put their hands together to be able to say 'amen,'" said Katra. "And then we need to let clergy know, so … if someone's coming up (for holy Communion) and that's their form of saying 'amen,' especially for an initial celebration … they have their best pastoral hat on as well."
"The community that is able to discover the beauty and joy of faith of which persons with disabilities are capable, becomes richer," she said, adding that the very notion of "ability" can be upended from a spiritual perspective.
Katra cited the remarks of a participant at a recent symposium she had attended: "She has a child with a disability, and she said, 'My child struggles with abstract concepts. I struggle with forgiveness. Who has the weakness?'"
Years earlier, while working in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Katra received an email from a parishioner who found his "best sermon ever" at a Mass while watching a parent "lovingly care for their adult son … wiping drool, fixing glasses, smiling (and) hugging" him in his wheelchair.
"I truly believe if you get people with disabilities and their families involved in the full life of the church, God uses them to move hearts," said Katra. "God is very … strongly connected with the disability community. And I think he speaks to them, and they speak to him in ways … that might even be stronger than how we think we (do)."
— Gina Christian, OSV News
National congress concludes, beginning a new era of Eucharistic 'missionary conversion'
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National congress concludes, beginning a new era of Eucharistic 'missionary conversion'
INDIANAPOLIS — The five days of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis could not have ended in a more fitting way -- with the celebration of the Eucharist with more than 50,000 people gathered at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Usually the home field of the Indianapolis Colts, for one last day, the stadium was filled with people adoring and praising Jesus Christ, hearts overflowing with love and gratitude for what they had experienced over the past week.
The Mass was celebrated by papal envoy Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who was present in Indianapolis for the entire congress, and who greeted participants in many different languages. In a homily delivered with energy, joy and humor, Cardinal Tagle thanked "the God who is Love ... for gathering us a family of faith at this closing Mass of the National Eucharistic Congress."
Cardinal Tagle, who serves the Holy See as the pro-prefect of the Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches of the Dicastery for Evangelization, said he brought with him the "fatherly, paternal blessings" of Pope Francis, who "prays, as we all do, that the congress may bear much fruit for the renewal of the church and of society in the United States of America."
The message of Pope Francis to congress-goers, he said, was "conversion to the Eucharist."
As attendees prepared to leave the five transformative days of the national congress, and were commissioned to go forth to spread the Gospel anew, Cardinal Tagle reflected on the connection between "Eucharistic conversion" and "missionary conversion."
Those who go out on mission are a "gift" to the church and to the world.
"Mission is not just about work but also about the gift of oneself," he said. "Jesus fulfills his mission by giving himself, his flesh, his presence to others as the Father wills it. The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a gift and the fulfillment of his mission."
Where there is "a lack or a weakening of missionary zeal," it could be that it is "partly due to a weakening in the appreciation of gifts and giftedness," he said.
"When pessimism takes over, we see only darkness, failures, problems, things to complain about," he continued. "We do not see gifts in persons and events. And those who do not see gifts in themselves and in others, they will not give gifts; they will not go on a mission."
The cardinal asked those present to examine their own consciences in considering why some people choose to walk away from the Eucharistic Lord, preferring "his absence rather than his presence in their lives."
"I invite you to pause and ask rather painful questions about this mysterious rejection of Jesus by his disciples -- by his disciples," Cardinal Tagle said. "Is it possible that we disciples contribute to the departure of others from Jesus?
"Why do some people leave Jesus, when he is giving the most precious gift of eternal life? Why do some baptized turn away from the gift of Jesus in the Eucharist?" he asked."Does our biblical, catechetical and liturgical formation allow the gift of Jesus' person to shine forth clearly? Does our Eucharistic celebration manifest Jesus' presence or does it obscure the presence of Jesus?"
Finally, the cardinal said, as attendees go forth, will they stay with Jesus?
"Those who choose to stay with Jesus will be sent by Jesus," he said. "The gift of his presence and love for us will be our gift to people. We should not keep Jesus to ourselves. That is not discipleship. That is selfishness. The gift we have received we should give as a gift."
He invited them to "share Jesus' tender love" with "the weary, the hungry and suffering."
"Go and share Jesus' shepherd's caress to the lost, confused and weak. ... Go and share Jesus' gift of reconciliation and peace to those who are divided," he said.
"A Eucharistic people is a missionary and evangelizing people," he said. "Let us proclaim Jesus joyfully and zealously for the life of the world!"
During and after Communion, the stadium was filled with strains of traditional Eucharistic hymns, including "Panis Angelicus" and Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus" performed by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. The musicians also performed the original score "the Mass of Peace" composed by Dave Moore, the director of liturgy and music for the National Eucharistic Congress, and his wife, Lauren. The Moores, founders of the Catholic Music Initiative, "a nonprofit apostolate that creates beautiful and singable music for Mass," also performed during the closing Mass and revival session.
Before the mission-sending Mass, the congress held a morning revival. Mother Adela Galindo, founder of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, encouraged them to see Mary as the model Eucharistic missionary and urged attendees to share the visible fruits of what they experienced.
"This is a new chapter in the life of the church, a chapter that we will write with the power of the Holy Spirit," she said.
"What we have freely received, we have to freely give," she said. "We must be witnesses and ardent missionaries of the Eucharist and the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
At that revival, Chris Stefanick, founder of Real Life Catholic, told the crowd that every Communion is a reminder of God's love and this demands a radical response by sharing the Gospel with confidence, rejoicing in his love even when life is hard, and above all, striving to become a saint.
"Every single human heart is made for the love that is Jesus Christ," he said.
"Some people have likened this conference to a Pentecost moment," Stefanick said. "Ask for the grace that he promised to make us his witnesses."
At the conclusion of the Mass, Bishop Andew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress, Inc., stood before the crowd in Lucas Oil Stadium and received a standing ovation.
"I have a question for you," he told the crowd. "This is the 10th National Eucharistic Congress -- do you think we should do an 11th one?"
The stadium roared with approving cheers and applause. He said that congress organizers had already been planning for the next congress in 2033, the Year of Redemption -- 2,000 years after Jesus' death and resurrection -- but they're now considering organizing another Eucharistic congress even sooner.
"We'll keep discerning and let you know," he said with a smile, to audience laughter.
He also announced another National Eucharistic Pilgrimage next year, starting in Indianapolis and arriving in Los Angeles in time for Corpus Christi Sunday, June 22, 2025, and that Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles said he would welcome "all of you."
He also asked the crowd if they would accept the bishops' invitation to join the Walk With One initiative by identifying a person they can accompany to better know Jesus.
"Commit yourself to walking with one person," he said. "Commit yourself to becoming a Eucharistic missionary, someone who lives deeply a Eucharistic life, and having received that gift, allows themselves to be given as a gift."
Already the congress's fire of Eucharistic revival showed signs of spreading beyond the U.S. as tens of thousands of Catholics left Lucas Oil Stadium in the orchestral afterglow of the final stirring hymn, "O God Beyond All Praising."
Christina Nugent, 18, traveled with her 20-year-old sister to the congress from Calgary, Alberta, and told OSV News she would love to see a similar event for Catholics in Canada.
Rather than be satisfied with her personal experience of the congress, "this has really pushed me to see what I can do for others when I get home," she said. "They're like, 'If you're in love with someone, you would tell people about it.' So if you're in love with Jesus, you should be telling people about it. That's my takeaway."
After the Mass, Bishop Cozzens told OSV News he is "just filled with so much gratitude for what God has done, and really the power of the Holy Spirit that's present here."
"It's hard to put into words what the whole experience has been, from the beginning to the end, so beautiful and such a sense of God renewing his church," he said. "I'm so grateful for what God has done."
— Gretchen R. Crowe, OSV News
Final revival night energizes thousands at Eucharistic congress to be 'alive again' in Christ
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Final revival night energizes thousands at Eucharistic congress to be 'alive again' in Christ
INDIANAPOLIS — From the first moments of the final nighttime revival session at Lucas Oil Stadium July 20, an electricity coursed through the air with an intensity surpassing all the prior events of the National Eucharistic Congress.Grammy-nominated Catholic musician Matt Maher led the crowd -- estimated at greater than 50,000 -- in making a joyful noise, on the fourth day of a conference where Catholics had been learning how to love Jesus better -- and how to let him love them better. The same crowd had arrived at the stadium energized by the most public witness of faith in the United States in decades outside of papal visits, after walking a mile-long Eucharistic procession throughout the streets of downtown Indianapolis.
That evening, a prolonged standing ovation greeted Tim Glemkowski, CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., as he took the main stage.
"If you went through all the effort that it took to get here to Indianapolis, I'm convinced that it was because the Lord called you and appointed you to be here personally," he said. "He's after your heart and my heart. ... He's come for you. He's come for you because he loves you."
Throughout the night, speakers were greeted with standing ovations and cheers.
Fans of the popular TV series "The Chosen" had a surreal experience as Jonathan Roumie, beloved for his portrayal of Jesus in the show, read from a portion of the Gospel that had not been included in the series.
"Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you," he read in the way he voices Jesus in the show. "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."
After reading John 6:47-69, he thanked those gathered for sharing that "very intimate moment in Scripture that I personally have so longed to see."
Roumie gave his reflections in a striking shirt -- one he reportedly designed himself -- featuring the famous quote, "If it's a symbol, to hell with it," from Catholic author Flannery O'Connor, who gave that response after someone referred to the Eucharist as merely a symbol. The audience could not see the back of Roumie's shirt, which quoted John 6:53, with key words in bold: "AMEN, AMEN, I say to you, unless you EAT the flesh of the Son of Man and DRINK his blood, you do not have LIFE within you."
He shared with the crowd that he had spent the last week filming the Last Supper scene for "The Chosen." The prospect of such a portrayal, he said, had caused him a lot of anxiety. "As a Catholic, I understand the weight," he said, of depicting the institution of the Eucharist that night.
"I understand the reality of what it is we believe and what that host represents" and "who that actually is now that we are about to receive," he said, adding that receiving the Eucharist and going to daily Mass has changed his own life.
"The Eucharist for me is healing," he said. "The Eucharist for me is peace, the Eucharist for me is my grounding. The Eucharist for me is his heart within me."
As many speakers have done during the congress, Catholic author and podcaster Gloria Purvis began by sharing a Eucharistic encounter she had. As a 12-year-old African American girl at her Catholic school in Charleston, South Carolina, she found herself in front of the monstrance with the Eucharistic Jesus exposed. She recalled feeling "completely consumed in flames," but it did not hurt. And she was changed. She informed her parents that she would become Catholic.
"There is that unity in the Spirit because God spoke it," she said.
Purvis listed some signs of unity in the church: the unity in celebrating the liturgy as a community, the unity in the pope's leadership, the unity as one family of God (church militant, church suffering and church triumphant), and the example of the martyrs.
She also spoke about signs of disunity in the church: rejection of the pope, preferring idols of temporal power (such as putting political party allegiance ahead of allegiance to Jesus Christ), and the sin of racism.
She also suggested sacrifice, prayers, fasting and almsgiving as a balm for the wounds of disunity that mark the body of Christ.
"Let our witness to whom we say we love penetrate all that we do and say -- and all that we are willing to undertake for the glorification of the Lord and the growth of his church," Purvis said.
In the final congress keynote, Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and founder of the Catholic media apostolate Word on Fire, urged the audience to leave the stadium with "the light of Christ" to change society. It's the job of the laity to bring the light of Christ to the secular world, he said.
Bishop Barron quoted St. Catherine of Siena's words: "Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."
"God tells us who we should be, how we should live -- everything else is a footnote," Bishop Barron said. "The biggest problem today in our culture is the culture of self-invention: 'I decide who I am, I decide me and my life, I decide what it's all about -- even my gender I'll decide.'"
Obedience is one of the evangelical counsels, along with poverty and chastity, lived by men and women in religious orders, but the bishop urged the laity to heed them all in their state of life, too.
"We have over the centuries consistently obeyed" Jesus' command "to do this in remembrance of me," Bishop Barron said, and "despite our failures," we believe that Jesus is "not simply a wisdom figure, but rather God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. ... That's the basic theology of the church, the theology of the Real Presence. That's why we're here."
Bishop Barron said that "we don't pay enough attention to" other commands from Jesus.
Regarding chastity, he said the church's teaching is not puritanical, but is about living one's sexual life in "a morally and spiritually responsible way" and bringing "the whole of one's sexuality under the aegis of love."
"If beginning tonight 70 million Catholics decided to live according to chastity, abortion, sex abuse, the objectification of men and women, hookup culture -- all of that would be undermined," he said.
Bishop Barron said when so much of the world is chasing after wealth, pleasure, power and honor, poverty helps us be detached from these things to "live in Christ." As a guide to live out poverty, he pointed to Pope Leo XIII's teaching: "When the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, it is a duty to give to the poor out of that which remains."
Eucharistic adoration powerfully ended the night, with Bishop David L. Toups of Beaumont, Texas, processing with the Eucharist to the central altar on the stadium floor. He knelt before the Eucharistic Lord in the monstrance blessed by Pope Francis, for 40 minutes, with stretches of silence that flowed into worship songs from Maher and fellow musician Sarah Kroger.
People knelt, stood and sat during adoration, many with hands raised in praise. During the final period of quiet, a woman's spontaneous song carried over the main floor, while a group elsewhere in the stadium sang a hymn.
After benediction, Bishop Toups processed with the Eucharist out of the stadium, and Maher launched into "Alive Again."
"I'm alive, I'm alive because he lives," Maher sang, his voice reverberating throughout the stadium. "Amen, Amen! Let my song join the One that never ends!"
— OSV News
Tens of thousands flood Indianapolis streets for largest U.S. Eucharistic procession in decades
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Tens of thousands flood Indianapolis streets for largest U.S. Eucharistic procession in decades
INDIANAPOLIS — Tens of thousands of Catholics walked through the streets of downtown Indianapolis July 20 for what Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens said "might be the largest Eucharistic procession in the country in decades." But, in prayer during adoration at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, the bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, also said their immense numbers were still "too small."
"There are millions of people in our own states, in our dioceses, who don't yet know you," said Bishop Cozzens, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc. In his prayer, he encouraged the throngs of people kneeling in the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza to be missionaries to those who need to be brought to Jesus.
Along with Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson, Bishop Cozzens had accompanied the Eucharist on a truck-pulled float, kneeling before the gleaming monstrance.
Thousands had processed behind the flower-rimmed float, slowly making their way across 10 city blocks from the Indiana Convention Center to the Indiana World War Memorial. Others lined the streets, kneeling as the Eucharist passed by.
The procession was a much-anticipated highlight of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress held July 17-21 at the convention center and Lucas Oil Stadium. More than 50,000 passes were sold for the congress -- the first national Eucharistic congress in 83 years -- but organizers expected the procession to draw from beyond the congress's registered participants.
The float was preceded by hundreds of seminarians, religious sisters and brothers, deacons, an estimated 1,000 priests and more than 100 bishops and cardinals -- including Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the U.S. papal nuncio, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pope Francis' special envoy to the congress.
At the very front were children, dressed in white dresses and suits, who had recently received their first Communion. They carried baskets of rose petals, spreading them on the ground ahead of the Eucharist.
Immediately following the Eucharistic float, leading music, were a few of the "perpetual pilgrims" who had recently finished the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, an eight-week journey from four compass points of the United States with the Eucharist that culminated at the congress.
Walking with them in the Indianapolis procession was Will Peterson, whose nonprofit Modern Catholic Pilgrim had organized the pilgrimage. Behind them were Knights of Columbus, knights and dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, walking closely together, and other perpetual pilgrims from the national pilgrimage. The procession also included Catholic dancers reflecting their cultural traditions.
As the Eucharistic float pulled away from the conference center along Capitol Avenue, in the shadow of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church -- the site of the congress's perpetual adoration chapel -- and under a skyway emblazoned with the words "These Roads Lead to Revival," a crush of people left the sidewalks to walk behind the Lord.
The float turned right down Maryland Street and then left on Meridian Street, a central Indianapolis corridor, passing storefronts, office buildings and restaurants, and curving around the Monument Circle roundabout. When it arrived at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, Bishop Thompson and Bishop Cozzens disembarked.
Bishop Cozzens processed with the monstrance, followed by Bishop Thompson, toward a stage at the base of the memorial, where musicians were singing the Divine Mercy Chaplet. When they reached the stage and its temporary altar, they secured the monstrance in its base for adoration and knelt before Jesus in the Eucharist.
As people made their way into the park, many knelt on the grass or the sidewalks as a soprano sang "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent." With the hot July sun beating down on the pavement, people knelt, wept or raised their arms, or simply sat and contemplated the Blessed Sacrament.
After another hymn, Bishop Cozzens read from Matthew 13: "Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
Kneeling before the Eucharist, he prayed, "Jesus we know the procession we made today is a symbol, a sign of our earthly pilgrimage, and it's not over. ... We know that you want all people to follow you. Jesus, we will walk with them. Jesus, bring them to us. We want to walk with them towards you, Jesus."
He continued: "Jesus we have experienced in these days together just a small taste of heaven. Show us, Lord, who you are. ... Make us, Lord, your missionaries to every corner of our land."
Bishop Cozzens' six-minute prayer led into adoration with praise and worship music, the song's refrain simply a repetition of "Jesus."
After Benediction, the Eucharist's repose and the final stirring chords of "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name," someone shouted, "Viva Cristo Rey!" ("Long Live Christ the King!") -- to which the multitude gave a loud shout of "Viva!" People began dispersing well after 5 p.m., with most making their way to Lucas Oil Stadium for the congress's 7-10 p.m. final nightly revival session, which was to feature Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and the Word on Fire apostolate; speaker and podcast host Gloria Purvis; actor Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in "The Chosen" miniseries; and musician Matt Maher.
Participants marveled at the procession's size and meaning, both for them personally, and for the wider church in the U.S.
During adoration, tears filled the eyes of Irene Mantilla, an immigrant from Peru now living in Chicago. The 60-year-old said she recalled God "parting the Red Sea" of difficulties in her life and accompanying her. "And I'm still walking," she said.
Father Roger Landry, a Columbia University chaplain who had traveled the full length of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage's Seton Route from New Haven, Connecticut to Indianapolis, said the procession was "by far the greatest one that the country has had since before World War II."
"I was so happy that the Eucharistic congress and the Eucharistic pilgrimage featured this extraordinary Eucharistic procession," he said. "And that we all had the privilege to be able to walk with Jesus and tens of thousands of others, thanking him for never abandoning us and always walking with us through life.
He was also grateful for this tremendous witness to proclaim to Indianapolis and the entire U.S. "what the nature of the Christian life is."
"It's a journey with Jesus, not here to Indianapolis, but to heaven," Father Landry said.
Theresa and Craig Gilley from Alabama had arrived early at the Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, and said that it was Jesus alone who had brought them to Indianapolis and to the procession.
"I've thought to myself, you know, you can see him in any church on any corner, but there's something about all of us getting together that is really cool, especially being from the South where there's not really a lot of us (Catholics)," Theresa Gilley said.
"It's really exciting to be able to show not just the city of Indianapolis, but the whole country what Catholics really think and really believe," Craig Gilley added.
Among the first communicants leading the procession was Elaine Saunee, with her mother, Melanie Saunee, of Destrehan, Louisiana. Elaine Saunee received her first Communion 14 weeks ago and was excited to be in the procession, wearing her first Communion dress and a veil crafted from her mother's wedding veil.
"To be able to walk with him (Jesus) in procession and to witness to the rest of the country is a desire you have as a parent, to bring witness to their faith," Melanie Saunee said, her voice filling with emotion.
Frederick Williams, a seminarian with the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, described the procession as "such an incredible opportunity."
"You know, going into it, I was kind of skeptical," he admitted. "My feet were hurting from walking all week already. But, you know, as soon as I sort of gathered with my brother seminarians here, seeing the immensity of them, seeing them, the bishops gathered, the priests, the deacons, the lay faithful, the religious sisters, I could not think about my feet that were hurting this entire time."
"All I could think of was just my heart overflowing with love of the church," he said.
Jeremy Schaefer, a seminarian from the Diocese of Cleveland, said the atmosphere was "truly electric."
"It's been an amazing week so far, and this is quite the capstone for the entire week," he said, calling it "a highlight of my seminary formation and I'm sure a highlight of my entire life in general."
Dave Baudry from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said he was at the beginning of the procession and was touched to see the amount of people there, especially the kids praying on the sidewalk and the sheer number of priests and sisters walking with the Eucharist.
He described people locking arms together, singing, praying the rosary and reflecting, even people "in tears, crying, as we went by."
"It was the biggest thing I ever experienced in my 45 years of ministry," he said.
Beth Schuele of Warren, Michigan, and a volunteer and trainer with St. Paul Street Evangelization, spoke to OSV News as she stood with her "mobile evangelization unit" -- a wagon with prayer cards and a prayer sign -- at the edge of the war memorial as thousands processed by.
"I think it's beautiful," she said about the procession. "The big witness of what it is, that Jesus is really truly present, is powerful."
Susan Holtsclaw from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, said she and her husband, Greg, were impressed to see "many thousands of people in the street just to wait for Jesus to go by."
"To see him walk through the streets with thousands of people there worshiping and ... know he's there and that he's always with us" was a gift, said Greg Holtsclaw.
The Holtsclaws had never before seen a procession of this magnitude.
"It's unbelievable to see so many people here, all of us worshiping, you know, God and our Savior," Greg Holtsclaw said.
After the "amazing" procession and all they have experienced at the congress, they are looking forward to sharing their experience with people at home, he said, and "spread the love that we felt here."
— Maria Wiering, OSV News
Day 4 of national congress begins with historic liturgy, casts vision for church's future
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Day 4 of national congress begins with historic liturgy, casts vision for church's future
INDIANAPOLIS — At Lucas Oil Stadium, Day 4 of the National Eucharistic Congress, began with a liturgy -- and a story -- from the church that St. Thomas the Apostle planted in India.
Tens of thousands of Catholics filled the stadium July 20 to celebrate together a Holy Qurbana, the Eucharistic liturgy of the Syro-Malabar Church, one of the Catholic Church's 23 Eastern-rite churches, celebrated by Bishop Joy Alappatt of the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Eparchy of Chicago. The bishop explained that the Qurbana, which he celebrated in English with some hymns in the original Syriac language "originated from the time of St. Thomas the Apostle ... who came to India in A.D. 52, and because of his mission work we got a Catholic community in India."
Ukrainian Catholic Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of Philadelphia, who concelebrated the Holy Qurbana, told the thousands gathered that just as St. Thomas went forth to bring the Gospel to India, they too are called to share the Good News far and wide. He said, "Just think -- 20,000 years from now, somebody might say ... if we receive the (Holy Spirit), 'Around the year 2,000, things really started going (for the church). People strengthened by the body and blood of the Lord, receiving the Holy Spirit, went out with the Good News.'"
Congress-goers joined in what organizers said may be the largest Eastern-rite liturgical celebration in the history of North America on a day dedicated to the theme "This Is My Body."
Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, told reporters later that morning that they wanted participants to experience the congress's theme of unity amid the church's "beautiful diversity."
"The Catholic Church is a universal church. It speaks every language on earth. We're the most diverse organization in the whole world, because every culture and every language celebrates the Eucharist differently," he said.
For most attendees who were familiar with the Mass -- the Latin Church's form of Eucharistic liturgy -- this was their first experience of the Holy Qurbana and gave them a deeper appreciation for Jesus' gift of himself in the Eucharist.
"I felt like it just had everything that we believe, the Bible and Scripture all sort of wrapped from one end to the other," Theodore Kuczek, an attorney from a northern suburb of Chicago, who said praying the different form of Eucharistic liturgy both felt familiar and emotionally stirring. "It was just very, very moving. The closing prayer ... had us meditate on how joyful this was and to enjoy it now, because who knows if we'll have it again."
During the morning's youth Mass, Indianapolis Archbishop Charles C. Thompson spoke candidly to the young people about the impact that each one can make, even to the suffering.
"We don't know the wounds people carry. We see some on the outside. The deepest wounds often are on the inside. We don't know the lives we're touching," he said.
"But every time you ... offer a smile, open a door, sit with a sick friend, say hello to a stranger -- we never know the difference we're making," he said. "You never know how God is using us."
He told the young people the church needed them as committed disciples of Jesus, and that their witness was a source of inspiration.
"It's so important for us to keep in mind that the young people in our church are not the future of the church. You're the young church now, and we need your energy," he said. "We need your gifts now."
In the Encounter impact session, theologian Edward Sri unpacked the scriptural context of a few parts of the Mass. He acknowledged that many Catholics might feel like "robots," going through the motions of Mass without understanding what they say or why. Drawing on the wedding at Cana and scenes in Revelation, he explained that Mass is a wedding feast, and "every time you go to Mass, you're getting a wedding invitation."
Sri encouraged attendees to keep the "fire" they've experienced at the congress through community with other committed Catholics and being attentive to their relationship with people in their lives, especially their families.
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, an international speaker and author who spoke immediately after Sri, urged attendees to not shy away from their call to evangelize those around them by focusing on Jesus' love.
"We have to remember, people may meet Jesus for the very first time when they meet you," he said. "Filled with word and sacrament, you become his witness in the world, and that's their first encounter with Jesus."
Following the Mass in Spanish with Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, close to 2,000 Latino Catholics participated in the last Encuentro session of the congress.
Auxiliary Bishop Joseph A. Espaillat of New York discussed how to become missionary disciples through accompanying, listening, teaching and sending. He exhorted the audience to cheer for the risen Christ and not let this moment pass them by. "We are here to light a fire, Amen?" he said. "So, we don't return to our homes being the same."
Theologian Dora Tobar Mensbrugghe gave a presentation about the life of the disciple of Jesus and how a Eucharistic disciple is also a missionary.
"To be a disciple is not to be 'knowers' or 'repeaters' of his teachings, as beautiful as they are," she said. "It is not about being mere admirers of the person of Christ."
Rather, she said, Jesus wants his disciples to be transformed and "be creatures of love and for love. To be in his image."
At the Cultivate impact session for families, Damon and Melanie Owens spoke about the importance of developing families' communal relationships with each other. The couple of 31 years and parents of eight are the co-founders of the Joy Ever After marriage and family ministry.
"It's essential to build a tribe, those families you can trust to share in forming your children, your family with," said Damon. "Kids provide opportunities to meet families with other kids. But it's about finding those who really share your faith, your values and mission, and making the decision to share with them."
Melanie Owens encouraged moms to find a "collective of women to open up your heart with, where you can trust and support each other."
She said, "I wanted Damon to fulfill me and make me happy, especially after I'd been with the kids all day. But I needed to form a collective with women to do that. That helps create better families."
Lisa Brenninkmeyer, founder and CEO of Walking with Purpose, a Catholic ministry providing Bible studies and community for women, at the Empower session said that Catholics need to respond to the hidden epidemic that plagues the faithful and society as a whole: loneliness and isolation. She called attention to U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy's recent findings that "even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness."
Drawing from the example of the early church in Acts, Brenninkmeyer said that "when the church comes together and offers an experience of true community, transformation happens."
She acknowledged that St. Paul's exhortation for Christians to "bear one another's burdens" is not easy. "Isolation is frankly easier oftentimes," she said.
"We come up against the pain of being in relationship with broken people and we get hurt," she said, "so we pull back and we isolate," but "the very circumstances that so often are indicating to us that we need to pull back from this community are the very things that God is bringing into our lives through the community so that we can be transformed into the image of Christ."
She encouraged those gathered "to keep showing up," building relationships within their community and growing them in their families in order to "build a church where no one stands alone."
In the Renewal impact session for ministry leaders, Curtis Martin, founder of FOCUS, the missionary outreach to college students, told them they can only be effective evangelists if they trust the transformative power of the Gospel truly works. He exhorted them to have a sense of urgency and not become complacent. Martin said that while God will take care of things, "he really wants you to pray and to weep and to fast and to love the poor, because he did those things for us."
"The crisis in our culture today is not because Jesus is less relevant. He has never been more relevant," Martin said. "We have the best story in the world. Not only is it fascinating and compelling -- it's true."
At an emotional final Abide impact session for clergy, Dan Cellucci, CEO of the Catholic Leadership Institute, shared the story of his son Peter's diagnosis with a malignant brain tumor at age 7 and how the illness was not "what he signed up for" as a husband and a father. He related the struggles of his fatherhood to the struggles that so many priests face in their own priestly ministries, where it is all too easy to become disillusioned and think that this is not "the cruise ship that I signed up for."
"So many of you have been broken by trauma, by feeling betrayed ... or just beat down," he said.
He said to those "hanging on by a thread, ready to explode or implode because the life they said 'yes' to is now more than the life they imagined and wanted ... you have made the right choice to be here, to be a part of this experience with your brothers, and I pray for you to hang on. Jesus wants to heal you."
Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, followed Cellucci's testimony by contemplating with his brother priests the "poverty of Christ," challenging them to become ever more configured to Christ and pouring themselves out for the good of their people.
"This is the point," he said. "That the Christ makes himself fully present and fully known in his true sense of who God is -- as the God who gives himself out."
As the morning's sessions concluded, the Indiana Convention thrummed with joy and anticipation of the coming Eucharistic procession through downtown Indianapolis that afternoon. A massive line snaked through the convention center to see exhibits on Eucharistic miracles and the Shroud of Turin, while young people marched through singing joyfully their love for Jesus.
In another jubilant spontaneous moment, a group of women from all over the U.S. with the Catholic Women's Association - Cameroon sang and danced to songs speaking their love for Jesus and Mary, expressed through their Cameroonian heritage.
"We're thirsty for you Jesus, we're thirsty for you, Jesus, we are thirsty for you -- and that is why we are here."
—OSV News
National congress's second night of Eucharistic revival: 'Only love can make a saint'
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National congress's second night of Eucharistic revival: 'Only love can make a saint'
Pilgrims listen to speakers during the July 18, 2024, second revival night of the National Eucharistic Congress at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)INDIANAPOLIS — On the second night of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 18, close to 50,000 Catholics prayed together, listened to touching personal testimonies and were invited to reflect on how to turn away from those obstacles dampening the fire of their love for Jesus Christ.
But while Father Mike Schmitz and Mother Mary Olga of the Sacred Heart moved participants with their inspiring keynote exhortations -- the last word was given to the Eucharistic Lord. In the darkness of the stadium, with only beams of white light illuminating the Blessed Sacrament, people prayed and contemplated before Jesus, while the air resonated with Latin chants set to Eastern-styled melodies.
The keynotes given by Father Schmitz and Mother Mary Olga helped prepare congress-goers for this transcendent night of revival centered around Eucharistic adoration.
"Knowledge can make us great, but only love can make a saint," Father Schmitz said. Father Schmitz, director of youth and young adult ministry for the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, who also hosts chart-topping podcasts "The Bible in a Year" and "The Catechism in a Year," was a much-anticipated speaker, with several attendees telling OSV News earlier in the week that they were especially eager to see him in person. As Patrick Kelly, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, introduced him the audience stood and cheered.
"You know this love story already, but what if you didn't?" asked Father Schmitz, as he began what can only be called a Scripture studies class. Opening a worn Bible, he read from Luke 24 about the two travelers on the road to Emmaus who did not recognize Jesus and were mourning his loss in Jerusalem. He recounted how Jesus explained the ways Scripture pointed to him as the Messiah, beginning with God making the world good, and human beings breaking their bond with God through sin, and their need to somehow restore that relationship.
Jesus' sacrifice on the cross reconciled humankind and God, Father Schmitz said, and at Mass, Catholics participate in that moment on Calvary.
While one aim of the National Eucharistic Revival is to bring people from ignorance to knowledge, Father Schmitz suggested that the deeper problem is indifference -- and the remedy required repentance.
"Too often we say, 'We have the real presence,' but our hearts are far from him. Too often, we just don't care," Father Schmitz said, speaking rapidly and with characteristic energy.
The remedy to indifference is love, he said, and the road to love is repentance.
For her part, Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, the founder and servant mother of the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth in the Archdiocese of Boston, moved people to tears with her touching keynote as she shared stories of Eucharistic miracles of love and healing amid suffering.
She began by sharing her own experience of being healed by Jesus in her own suffering as a survivor of four wars in the Middle East. She experienced abuse in her home and recalled as a teenager having to bury people slain by war.
"All these years of suffering led me to the foot of the cross, because I thought the one who had suffered so much will understand my suffering," she said. "As I was kneeling at the foot of the cross, crying my heart to Jesus to help me bear the crosses of my own life, I encountered the pierced heart of Jesus -- and that's what I heard in my heart on that day: That even on the cross and through the cross, we can still choose to love."
Mother Olga shared the story of a little boy named Quinn who was fighting cancer when she met him in her ministry at age 4. She felt Jesus say to her "give me to him" with such intensity that she received special permission for Quinn to receive his first holy Communion despite his young age. The doctors were surprised when he suffered few side effects during his radiation treatment, but Mother Olga knew that the Lord was with Quinn amid the treatment.
"His whole life became around the Eucharist," she said, adding today he is free from cancer.
She concluded by reminding those gathered that Jesus is always with them "whether in big processions like we have encountered here" or "in hospitals, NICUs, nursing homes, prisons, recovery centers."
The two keynote speakers were preceded by two testimonials, the first from pro-life activist Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action, who shared how her life was transformed after an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist. After becoming Catholic and asking the Lord for him to "use (her) to do something to save lives," Rose started the pro-life organization Live Action at age 15, which reaches millions of people each month, according to its website.
After marrying her husband six years ago and having three children -- one of whom was sleeping backstage -- the mission of life has become her family mission, Rose said.
"We pray together, not just for an end to abortion, but we pray for our children, that they may grow big and strong and healthy, that they may become saints, and that they may help lead many souls to heaven," she said.
Also present were Ken and Mary Ann Duppong, who raised six children with faith as the core of their lives.
They shared their love story with the audience, explaining how they felt called to move back to their home state of North Dakota for the sake of their family and began deepening their faith. Mary Ann Duppong talked about how they started praying the family rosary when Ken Duppong's mother got sick, developed a devotion to Our Lady of Fatima and consecrated their family to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The love for Jesus they instilled in their children had a great impact on their daughter, Michelle Christine Duppong, who loved the Eucharist immensely and became a FOCUS missionary. Before passing away in 2014 amid a battle with cancer, she "consecrated her suffering to those who needed to encounter the love in the Eucharist," shared emcee Montse Alvarado of EWTN. In June 2022, Bishop David Kagan of Bismark, North Dakota, announced his intention to formally open the diocesan phase of investigation into Michelle Duppong's life, a preliminary step toward her potential canonization.
When asked for advice for families who want to raise their children in the faith, Ken and Mary Ann Duppong encouraged them to pray a lot and remember that children watch everything their parents do.
"I tell people that your example for your children is a real big influence," Ken Duppong said. "If you use bad language, they will use bad language. If you go to Mass, they see you do that. They will do that in the future. ... And that is probably the best thing you can do is give them a good example of what to do."
The words certainly resonated with the many parents in the stadium that night, who were recognized that night for the sacrifice and dedication it took to bring their families to the congress in Indianapolis.
Daniel Cabrera of Camby, Indiana, told OSV News the revival evening's speakers were good -- but the experience of Eucharistic adoration was "totally awesome." So much so, he said, that he wept.
"I'm not even considering myself worthy of being here," he said. "It's totally a privilege to be here."
Cabrera and his wife, Maria Hernandez, are attending the July 17-21 congress with their six children, ages 3 to 17.
Cabrera said he experienced "that silence that only allows you to be with God on a personal level, like no other silence in the world."
He said, "That silence says a lot, because it's a direct communication to your soul."
— OSV News
National congress delves into the Eucharist as 'the greatest love story ever told'
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New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan celebrates morning Mass at Lucas Oil Stadium July 18, 2024, during the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. At left is Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller
National congress delves into the Eucharist as 'the greatest love story ever told'
INDIANAPOLIS — Hundreds of priests, around 100 bishops and several cardinals concelebrated the morning Mass in Lucas Oil Stadium July 18 -- a liturgy that kicked off the first full day of National Eucharistic Congress that had officially opened the evening prior with a revival centered around a beautiful Holy Hour.
"To recover the centrality of Sunday Mass as God's people are fed with the Bread of Life has to be the resolve of this grand Eucharistic congress," Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the principal celebrant, said in the homily reflecting on Jesus' "Bread of Life Discourse" in John 6.
"As Pope Francis has repeated: 'no Eucharist, no church,'" the cardinal continued.
Following the liturgy, the morning's seven "impact sessions" -- specific tracks offered for three mornings during the congress -- took that message to heart as speakers encouraged the tens of thousands of Congress-goers to enter more deeply into the day's theme of understanding the Eucharist as "the greatest love story."
Following music from the Sarah Kroger Band, Catholic radio personality Katie Prejean McGrady emceed the morning's Encounter impact session in Lucas Oil Stadium. She interviewed two Sisters of Life, Sister Marie Veritas and Sister Mary Grace Langrell, who shared their love of the Eucharist, how Jesus' real presence in the Eucharist impacted their religious vocations and how encounters with the Eucharist have healed the people they serve.
"In the Eucharist, we find the greatest measure of our worth," Sister Mary Grace said. "The Eucharistic heart of Jesus is for every human heart."
Msgr. James Shea, president of the University of Mary and author of the book "From Christendom to Apostolic Mission," spoke about satisfaction and the Eucharist. "God has made us so that we are incomplete unless we are feeding on him," he said. "We are famished for God."
Dramatically tracing the story of salvation history, Msgr. Shea spoke about the failure, violence and division experienced by "humanity in a state of malnutrition" following Adam and Eve's partaking in the forbidden fruit. Amid their disobedience, God taught his people to trust him again, until he did something "beyond imagination," sending his Son Jesus to eat and drink among them, and to be their food.
"We will either feed on God or on something else, and whatever that something else is, it will always leave us hungry," Msgr. Shea said, inviting them to "eat and drink" of the Eucharist and then "rush out into a starving world and tell everybody we meet, 'Starving people, listen! We found where the food is!'"
At the same time as Mass was celebrated at the stadium, two other liturgies took place at the congress, including a Mass celebrated in Spanish by Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley of Boston and concelebrated by multiple bishops and many priests. Following the Spanish Mass, hundreds of Latino Catholics participated in the Spanish-language impact session: Encuentro.
Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, and Mabel Suarez, the Charismatic Renewal Representative Region 8 of the U.S. and Canada, focused their presentations on Jesus as the summit of encounter and the source of love. Bishop Flores spoke of the call to renew the spirit of mission and participation in today's world by living in the Lord's way.
"Jesus gave himself in his poverty to show that our poverty is the wealth of the church," he said. "The Lord asks us to be accessible to the most vulnerable and not to hide so that no one will touch us. The Lord saved us through his being vulnerable and accessible."
Following the bishop's teaching, Suarez, a psychologist specializing in pastoral care, urged people to let themselves be loved by Jesus, who "is in the Eucharist waiting to pour himself out in all his fullness."
To the Eucharist, she said, "we come with troubles … (and) desolations" yet "the Lord restores strength and encourages in mission." She reminded them they are all called to make known the living God in their lives so that more brothers and sisters "may encounter the Christ we have encountered."
At the Renewal impact session -- geared toward people who volunteer in ministries or serve as staff members -- speakers emphasized the importance of receiving first from Jesus Christ before trying to give.
"It's about you filling your cup. We want to give, give and give and don't take enough time to receive," emcee Mari Pablo of Evangelical Catholic and a presenter for Ascension Press on theology of the body and Catholic social teaching, told some 4,000 attendees.
"For the next few days, just receive and say to the Lord, 'Fill me up,'" she continued. "Give from your excess, not from your depletion."
Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston reflected on what the Eucharist meant to the early church -- particularly the martyrs -- and noted that the dialogue prayed at the start of the Mass's Eucharistic prayer goes back to the church's earliest days.
"They took the Eucharist very seriously and very realistically because they knew they could die as martyrs," Cardinal DiNardo said. "The reality of the body and blood of Christ runs through the early days of the church. The next time you go to Mass and say, 'We lift up our hearts,' think of these martyrs, since we live in an age when there are still martyrs."
The day's Awaken impact session for youth began with a wake-up call, courtesy of the pulsating rock music that resounded through a hall of the Indiana Convention Center, which led hundreds of teens to rise to their feet, jumping, stomping and clapping to the lyrics that focused on a deeper relationship with Christ.
"If you're here for a hype Jesus concert then you've wasted your time," said emcee Oscar Rivera. "But if you're here to find Jesus -- Jesus the one who set the blind to see -- then you're in the right place."
"Our bodies and our souls long for something more than what the world has given us, and that something more is Jesus Christ," he added, calling on them to let the Holy Spirit work with them and be "the spark that ignites Lucas Oil Stadium."
That message was echoed by the main speaker of the youth session, Paul J. Kim, who emphasized the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus.
"Do you know things about Jesus or do you actually know Jesus, because there is a difference," Kim said. "Who is Jesus to you? Do you have a personal relationship with him?"
That's the goal the congress should have, Kim told the youth, reminding them to focus on getting to heaven with Jesus.
Father Leo Patalinghug, an award-winning chef and TV host who is a member of the Voluntas Dei (The Will of God) community of consecrated life, engaged children and parents in the first morning of the Cultivate impact session for families by talking about superheroes, what to do when drowning, and the four first moves of a ninja, and tying them all to the Eucharist and living lives of faith.
"My favorite superheroes are Yoda and hobbits -- because they're small, like me," he joked, referencing characters from Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. But Jesus also makes himself small in the Eucharist, the priest noted.
"He became small so he could enter into our busy lives, into our hearts," he said. "He puts himself into us so we can be saved from the inside out and live supernatural lives."
Father Patalinghug next shared that while the rescue holds that lifeguards use to save people from drowning are not comfortable, they do help get the person to safety.
"And that's what Jesus does," he said. "If we don't fight him, if we trust him, if we let him guide us, he will get us to the shore to safety, and that shore is heaven."
Last, the martial-arts-expert priest compared the four first moves he learned and compared them to prayer: First, come to attention -- put yourself in God's presence; next, bow -- give honor and praise to God; third, cross your arms and take a deep breath -- open your heart to God; and finally, stand in a relaxed stance -- rest in God.
With most of the congress's 1,200 registered bishops and priests in attendance at the Abide impact session for priests, speakers aimed to offer a retreat-like experience for the men in black.
The session emcee, Mother Gloria Therese, superior of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles, expressed her sincere gratitude for how the clergy has supported the National Eucharistic Revival, saying, "What's happening in this nation is profoundly beautiful."
Scott Hahn, founder and president of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, provided a detailed reflection on the disciples' encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and he challenged attendees to renew an understanding of the close bond between Scripture and the Eucharist as Christ's presence in the church.
"What we need to do in these times is to rekindle Eucharistic amazement," he said.
Father Brian Welter, director of the Institute for the Institute for Priestly Formation, reflected on how the depth of prayer for priests allows Christ to live more fully in them and their own ministry. By offering their lives in prayer for their flock, Christ is in their midst. Father Welter held up St. John Paul II as an example of this, using the words of the late Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, who said that whenever he met the holy pope "there was always another person in the room."
Finally, the day's Empower track, focusing on practical tools for evangelization, began with words of welcome and encouragement from Deacon Larry and Andi Oney, and a powerful keynote from Father John Burns, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and founder of Friends of the Bridegroom, an apostolate dedicated to the renewal of the church through the renewal of women's religious life.
Following the theme of the Congress that day, looking at salvation history as "the greatest love story," Father Burns presented the image from Scripture of the church as a bride and Christ as the bridegroom.
In Revelation, he said, God gives them "the image of the wedding feast of the Lamb toward which all of creation is pointed."
He also referenced the Old Testament's presentation of God in search of a bride and John's Gospel calling Christ the Divine Bridegroom.
In Jewish custom of the time, Father Burns said, "when the bridegroom would go away, he would leave the bride in the care of his best friend" who would "help to remind the bride that she is promised" protecting her from false suitors, forgetfulness and engaging in worldly ways.
"All of the church has that role," he said, "being friends of the bridegroom, awakening the bride to her nature."
Another ancient Jewish custom, he continued, was a repetition of the betrothal feast, "in order to allow a stirring of love, an increase of fervor."
He called the Eucharist "the betrothal feast repeated across time" and "the ongoing memorial of Christ's sacrifice and the price he paid to win this bride."
Every Mass, he said, Christ's followers "look with love to the wedding feast."
More liturgies and breakout sessions were planned for the afternoon, with the nightly revival session, keynoted by well-known podcaster Father Mike Schmitz and Mother Olga of the Sacred Heart, set to begin at 7 p.m.
— OSV News
'Jesus, I trust in you': National Eucharistic Congress opens with a powerful holy hour
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A pilgrim becomes emotional during Eucharistic adoration at the opening revival night July 17, 2024, of the National Eucharistic Congress at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
'Jesus, I trust in you': National Eucharistic Congress opens with a powerful holy hour
INDIANAPOLIS — Absolute silence filled Lucas Oil Stadium as tens of thousands of people dropped to their knees to adore Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament as the long-anticipated National Eucharistic Congress officially got underway on the evening of July 17 in Indianapolis. More than 100 spotlights trained on a large, golden monstrance on an altar in the center of the stadium as a powerful holy hour -- which took place before any talks, music or greeting by the evening's three emcees -- began the congress's first revival night filled with prayer, powerful speakers and praise-and-worship music.
Just before Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota -- the driving episcopal force behind the congress -- walked onto the floor carrying the monstrance, the 30 perpetual pilgrims who had walked the four National Eucharistic Pilgrimage routes entered the stadium. Carrying icons of each route's respective patron saints -- St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin, St. Junipero Serra, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and the Blessed Virgin Mary -- the pilgrims took the final steps that officially completed their eight-week journey from points north, south, east and west across the U.S. to the July 17-21 congress in Indiana's capital city.
After a time of silent prayer and praise and worship, Bishop Cozzens knelt for a second time in front of the monstrance.
"Lord, we wanted to give you the first words of our National Eucharistic Congress," he said. Kneeling before Jesus in the Eucharist, Bishop Cozzens recounted how the National Eucharistic Revival -- launched in 2022 -- has led Catholics to gather to study, teach and pray with the Eucharist, spending countless hours in adoration and small groups, and in parish and diocesan initiatives.
"Lord, we made a National Eucharistic Pilgrimage for you," he prayed. "For the last 65 days we brought your living presence across this land, across the East, West, North and South. We visited large churches and small churches. We had large processions in cities and small processions in prisons. We visited nursing homes and homeless shelters. Lord, we tried to share with everyone we met along the way your unspeakable love."
He said the pilgrimage prayed for the country and the church and brought those prayers to the congress. He thanked Jesus for the miracles the pilgrims saw along the way: conversion, people return to the faith, physical and spiritual healings.
"We hope to see more," he said.
He told Jesus that the tens of thousands of Catholics in the stadium had gathered there to give him thanks and praise and to be changed into "missionary disciples, people filled with the joy of the Gospel, people so grateful for the salvation you purchased for us."
He prayed for deeper conversion for individuals, peace in wartorn countries, those affected by abuse, and unity in both the country and the church. Bishop Cozzens invited attendees to share in silence their own desires with Jesus, and then asked them to pray that the Lord would also reveal his desires for them.
"Jesus, I trust in you," he prayed, and the stadium resounded as people echoed his prayer.
"Lord, we have come here because we want a revival, a Eucharistic revival, and we want every Catholic to realize that you are alive in the Eucharist, and to encounter your love," he said. "And Lord, we know that this revival, it has to begin with us."
After the holy hour concluded and Bishop Cozzens processed out with the Eucharist, the revival's emcees then took the stage: Father Joshua Johnson, vocations director for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Montse Alvarado, president of EWTN News -- who greeted the attendees in Spanish and English -- and Sister Miriam James Heidland, a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. The three talked about their own personal experiences with the Eucharist and what the congress meant to them before introducing the other speakers that evening.
Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S., was the night's keynote speaker. He opened with the reflection that "perhaps our main prayer for this Eucharistic congress should be this: that we as a church may grow in our unity so that we become more fruitful in our mission."
He invited those present to reflect on the basic question of "what is Eucharistic revival?" and "how will we know that we are experiencing Eucharistic revival?"
Revival is "always accompanied by sacramental devotion," he said, but it "must extend beyond devotional practices as well."
"When we are truly revived by the Eucharist," he said, "then our encounter with Christ's real presence in the sacrament opens us to an encounter with him in the rest of our life. This means seeing him everywhere we go."
He reminded those gathered that Christ "is also present in our encounters with people from whom we would otherwise consider ourselves divided" including "people from a different economic class or race, people who challenge our way of thinking."
Living "a truly Eucharistic life," he emphasized, means that adoration "spills over in our daily life, a life of relating to others, our way of seeing others."
He encouraged those gathered to use their time in adoration over the week of the Eucharistic Congress to ask the Lord to reveal the places where they are resistant to surrendering to his will.
"He is the only one who can lead us to new life," he concluded, "by following him, we can become true apostles of his Kingdom."
Sister Bethany Madonna, local superior of the new Phoenix mission of the Sisters of Life, talked about how Jesus, crucified and risen, "wants to reveal himself" and bring his grace because of his love for each person.
"God knows you. God loves you. And chooses you ... He has entrusted you with a mission that he has entrusted to no one else," she said.
She said that Jesus "knows that we are hungry for love, and he chooses to give himself to us as food and drink."
"We have this unquenchable thirst to be loved that no one and nothing can ever satisfy" but God, she explained.
Sister Bethany Madonna reminded people that when fear or failure can prevent them from drawing close to God's love, "Jesus redeems everything."
She shared the testimony of a woman who was terrified to go to confession because of two abortions she had when she was younger. She lived in shame and silence for 29 years, and when she made the appointment for the sacrament of reconciliation and drove to see the priest, she heard a whisper saying, "You don't have to do it," and, "This is too difficult ... turn back."
Praying Hail Marys all the way, she got to confession in tears; and after listening to her, the priest made the motion of picking up a lamb and said, "All of heaven rejoices ... welcome home."
Sister Bethany Madonna said that when the woman received Communion the next day, she said that "my life would be a 'yes' to God."
The opening revival night of the National Eucharistic Congress already had a profound effect on participants who spoke with OSV News.
Belen Munoz, 18, of Rosa Park, New Jersey, said it was "encouraging" to see so many Catholics gathered for the congress.
"Growing up in a secular community, it's a totally different experience," she said. "Getting just a taste of what we're encountering here is amazing, and I can't wait for the rest of the week."
"Tonight just showed me that Jesus is just so alive in the Eucharist and that it's just so obvious that he's working through so many people," said Molly Quinn, 18, from Naperville, Illinois. She added the experience "just made me realize that we're not alone in this world and there are so many people who are searching for Christ like I am."
"I've been having a rough patch in my life and so coming here to this and seeing how God can work through everyone is truly inspiring and powerful and makes me feel revived personally," added 18-year-old Michelle Jurec, also from Naperville. "I can't wait for the rest of the days."
Lotty Cantrelle, 63, a nurse from Lockport, Louisiana, stood and sang to a praise and worship song near the end of the evening. She said her pastor "volun-told" her to come to the congress -- but after experiencing the opening revival session, "I know that my priest knew I needed this," she said.
"A person's heart would have to be made of stone not to be changed by that," she said, noting Sister Bethany Madonna's words about trusting Jesus.
"That gave me a lot of comfort," she said. "I think this is a journey to my healing and to becoming my former self, who used to be more joyful. So I am ready."
OSV News Editor-in-Chief Gretchen R. Crowe, National News Editor Peter Jesserer Smith, Senior Writer Maria Wiering, Culture Editor Lauretta Brown and Spanish Editor Maria Pia Negro Chin contributed to this report.
Excitement, expectation build ahead of National Eucharistic Congress
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Dominican Father Patrick Briscoe, editor of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper, and Dominican Sister Maria Fatima use bullhorns as thousands of pilgrims wait in line to pick up their credentials outside the Indiana Convention Center during the opening of the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17, 2024. Also pictured with the ukulele is Catherine Kluempers, director of student activities at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)
Excitement, expectation build ahead of National Eucharistic Congress
INDIANAPOLIS — The streets outside Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis were abuzz with excitement July 17 as Catholics of all ages and walks of life gathered for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, the first such congress in 83 years.
Dominicans sang into bullhorns and volunteers passed out water as thousands waited in line that stretched out blocks to pick up their congress registration.
Across the street from the convention center, religious sisters handed out rosaries and welcomed congress-goers into the cool and silence of the historic St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church for perpetual adoration. Next door, parish volunteers sold charcuterie boards, beer and ice cream under a spacious tent, in view of a 22-foot-high bronze sculpture commissioned for the National Eucharistic Congress depicting Jesus Christ's crucified body and blood pouring out for the salvation of the world.
"Jesus comes to us yet today in His Real Presence in the Sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist to fortify, strengthen and heal His people and our nation!" read a sign explaining the statue, "This Is My Body" by Timothy Paul Schmalz.
Love for the Eucharist and a desire to be part of the nationwide "Catholic family" were frequently cited reasons that attendees shared for why they made the trip to Indianapolis for the July 17-21 congress, held at the Indiana Convention Center and the adjacent Lucas Oil Stadium.
Speaking with OSV News outside of St. John the Evangelist July 16, Tim Glemkowski, CEO of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., described the event as a "family reunion" with more than 50,000 passes sold. According to the NEC, registered attendees speak more than 19 languages, and include well over 1,000 priests and more than 200 bishops and cardinals. Around 8,000 of the attendees are under 25, with 5,000 of them under 18.
The event -- scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. July 17 with a procession and revival session featuring prominent Catholic speakers and Eucharistic adoration -- saw the surrounding blocks buzzing with final preparations and pre-congress excitement all day, starting with a standing-room-only 8 a.m. Mass at St. John the Evangelist celebrated by its pastor, Father Rick Nagel.
Father Nagel said his own life was transformed after attending World Youth Day in Denver in 1993.
"I hadn't been to Mass in some time. I hadn't been in confession in 13 years at that point in my life. But God loved me," he said. "And there (at World Youth Day), I heard the words of St. John Paul II, St. John Paul the Great: 'Open wide the doors to Christ,' he proclaimed. ... My heart began to open. ... I began to live my life to seek to be a reflection of Christ in the world."
"I know some are already on fire and just wanted to dive deeper into love of the Lord in his holy church," he said of those attending the congress. "And there'll be some that got here because the Spirit called them here, like he did me to Denver.
"No matter what the case is and where anybody's at," he continued, "I pray that all the pilgrims that come here for this week ahead have this same divine intimacy experience with the Lord. And our lives are changed. Our churches are changed. Our city is changed. Our nation is changed. Our world is changed so that we can be Christ's love in the world."
As he waited in line to claim his registration, Deacon Jim Reinhardt, 63, from the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, also pointed to World Youth Day as a model of what could come from the congress.
"You see the numbers of the people who don't believe in the Real Presence and that kind of thing, and it's heartbreaking," he said. "I'm thinking about what John Paul II did for Denver, and it just revived that city. ... Maybe this is the next spot -- that the Lord is going to do incredible work in Indianapolis that will spread out to the wider United States."
Father Gonzalo Siller-Ramirez, 37, of the Diocese of Fresno, California, who was traveling with 10 members of his parish, St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Dinuba, expressed similar expectations while in line and holding wooden rosary beads alongside his water bottle.
"My hope is that it impacts many generations," he said, including new vocations to priesthood and religious life and holy matrimony.
For Joan Hiel, a parishioner of St. John Vianney in Kailua, Hawaii, that impact is especially important for the youngest Catholics, whom she was preparing to serve during the congress in family spaces dedicated to the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
A longtime teacher of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a hands-on approach for children learning the faith, Hiel said she hopes the congress will "reinflame, especially in the youth, a fervor for the faith, for the Catholic faith in particular."
"Quite a few of our young Catholics have left the church," said Hiel, 60, "and I'm hopeful that they come and see, or even witness it online -- 'Look, all these young people. I don't need to go to another church to feel connected with youth and young adults.'"
Deeply instilling the Catholic faith in their three children -- ages 7, 10 and 12 -- played a major role in inspiring Brenda and Matt Almaguer of Kansas City, Kansas, to head to the congress.
"As a family, it begins in the home," said Brenda Almaguer, 46. "We're so grateful that we have the opportunity to get together (as a church) after 80-plus years. It's also a good example for them to see all these faith-filled people here."
Her 10-year-old son, Luke Almaguer, said he felt "excited and blessed" to be at the congress.
"There's so many Catholics," he said. "We get a bunch of adoration and we get to spend more time with Jesus, the king of the universe, which is kinda cool and big."
Asked what he was most looking forward to at the congress, he grinned and said, "Father Mike Schmitz." His dad gave him an approving fist bump.
Father Schmitz, a priest of the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, known especially for "The Bible in a Year" podcast, is scheduled to speak in Lucas Oil Stadium during the evening revival session July 18. Other keynote speakers include Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota; and Jonathan Roumie, who portrays Jesus in the miniseries "The Chosen."
The July 17 evening revival session was scheduled to include Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, board chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc.; Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States; and Sister Bethany Madonna, the Sisters of Life's local superior and mission coordinator in Phoenix. The event was expected to open with a "major" Eucharistic procession and conclude with adoration, with worship music from Dave and Lauren Moore, founders of Catholic Music Initiative.
While attendees waited for upwards of two hours to check in, the congress's exhibit hall opened at noon with a carnival-type feel. Families played lawn games on artificial turf while children colored on large pillars with black-and-white artwork of symbols of the Gospel writers. Someone dressed as a Legoman priest hurried past exhibitors, while Benedictine College's mascot, Rocky the Raven, ambled throughout the hall.
The hall also offered places for prayer and reflection. After writing a petition on a prayer wall at the Knights of Columbus exhibit, Gracie Díaz from the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, said she came to the congress for "healing" and "to be a witness of what God has done."
"Encountering that love that we had for our Lord. Everything he's done for us. Seeing everyone here come together as a family -- (a) big family that we are all united," she said, standing with her sister Sandra.
Díaz and her sister look forward to sharing the congress's testimonies "to those that are in need of his love, that don't know about him. Just bring out that word and spread it out," she said.
Exhibitors ranged from Catholic publishers, booksellers and software developers to rosary-makers, sacred art purveyors and a company that sells candles fragranced like the oils used to anoint Jesus after the crucifixion. Stickers, bottle openers and miniature Jesus figurines were among the freebies passersby snagged while visiting with the array of exhibitors and vendors.
Employees of the men's ministry Exodus 90 filled carts attached to bicycles with cold water bottles and towels to distribute to those in line outside, parked alongside an orange and white Exodus 90-branded race car "because it's Indianapolis," explained Adam Minihan, the organization's head of marketing, in an apparent nod to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's famous NASCAR races.
"There's a lot of smiles, a lot of joy out here," he said of the crowd in the exhibitors hall. Even outside in the 85 degree Fahrenheit heat and humidity, "there's nothing but excitement, joy -- they're eager to talk, which is pretty fun," he said.
Across the street, that's also what Olivia Fugate, 19, experienced in the first 20 minutes of her shift at St. John the Evangelist's hospitality tent billed as a "Eucharistic Village." Seeing masses of Catholics inspires her with "pure joy because you know you're not alone," she said.
"When you're (worshipping) with a group, it just feels like family," she said. "It feels like what heaven is going to feel like one day."
— Maria Wiering, OSV News
INDIANAPOLIS — From the first moments of the final nighttime revival session at Lucas Oil Stadium July 20, an electricity coursed through the air with an intensity surpassing all the prior events of the National Eucharistic Congress.
