Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 15, 2023 / 15:00 pm (CNA).
The U.S. bishops on Tuesday opened registration to attend the first National Eucharistic Congress in 83 years.
The National Eucharistic Congress will take place in Indianapolis July 17-21, 2024, and will be “a defining moment in our generation,” according to the website for the event.
A five-day event of prayers, speakers, and liturgical celebrations, the congress will be the capstone of the bishops’ three-year National Eucharistic Revival campaign, which began June 19, 2022.
Individual and group tickets to the National Eucharistic Congress can be purchased here.
The congress is expected to have a festival-like atmosphere, similar to World Youth Day, and will likely draw a crowd of 80,000 faithful.
According to the event’s website, the bishops hope the congress will draw American Catholics “into a deeper intimacy with our eucharistic Lord, allowing our eyes to be opened and our hearts to be set on fire with his love.”
The National Eucharistic Revival campaign is in part the bishops’ response to a decline in belief among Catholics regarding a key tenet of the faith.
The decision to undertake the initiative followed a 2019 Pew survey that revealed that only 31% of Catholics believe in a basic tenet of their faith — that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly, really, and substantially present in the Eucharist.
“We seek to invite people to a transformative encounter with Christ in the Eucharist that they might be healed, unified, and sent on mission,” said the U.S. bishops’ Evangelization and Catechesis chair Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota.
Next year’s congress will be the 10th National Eucharistic Congress and the first since 1941, according to the event’s website.
“We now resume the work begun long ago to understand and adore the greatest gift humanity has ever received,” the website says. “This will be a generational moment and the beginning of a new chapter for the Church in the United States.”
Speakers announced thus far include Montse Alvarado, the new president and COO of EWTN News; Sister Miriam James Heidland of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT); and Father Josh Johnson, director of vocations for the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
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An acceptable number of intelligent, committed Catholics hold to the precept of transubstantiation within its framework! This is to be respected, yet it is a topic that divides both Catholics as well as others.
Matters of faith are to be respected. To have a closer walk with the Lord is good. In John 6, where Jesus says to eat His flesh and to drink His blood, we should ask ourselves whether Jesus speaks in a spiritual sense or are we to take the words literally? A perplexing situation and a strong case has been made for transubstantiation by some fine minds.
Deuteronomy 12:23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
Genesis 9:4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Jesus was a man of decorum and common sense. He came to fulfill the law not to change it or to do something contrary to the teachings of Moses. The dilemma the disciples faced was one that they did not ask Jesus to clarify, so we are somewhat perplexed ourselves. What is the answer then? We must look to Scripture to interpret Scripture. Let us be kind to one another because a strong argument is made on both counts.