Church in the World

Eucharist a 'light for the world', says Pope

Americas

The 48th International Eucharistic Congress, held in Guadalajara, Mexico, closed this week with a televised message from Pope John Paul II broadcast to 65,000 people in the city's Jalisco Stadium.

The congress gathered bishops, priests and lay people from 87 countries for a full week of prayer and discussion aimed at bolstering devotion to the Eucharist across the world. Thirty-five cardinals and some 250 bishops attended the congress, along with hundreds of priests from every continent.

Speaking from St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican last Sunday, in a transmission he described as "a bridge thrown across the continents, with Christ as the meeting-point", the Pope said the congress "invites us to consider the eucharistic mystery, not just in itself, but in relation to the problems of our time." Referring to the Eucharist as the "mystery of light", the Pope said "This light is needed by the heart of man, made heavy by sin, often disoriented and weary, tested by suffering of every kind." He added that "this light is needed . . . at the beginning of a millennium that is distressed and humiliated by violence, terrorism and war".

The Eucharist is also the source of the world's inner life, the Pope said, contrasting that life with the "threatening shadows" of "a culture that denies respect for life in every stage". The Eucharistic Christ, the Pope said, is "the remedy for mortality".

The Pope read only the first and last sections of his Spanish-language text an aide read the rest. In Guadalajara, the crowd cheered the Pope ecstatically each time he paused to catch his breath, many waving white banners and handkerchiefs throughout the event.

John Paul II asked the Christian community to seek a deeper understanding of the Eucharist during Mass and in moments of adoration. This understanding should give rise to a sense of communion and a sense of mission, as well as a greater commitment to fraternity and service to the weakest, he said.

The Pope recovered enough strength to close the speech with the phrase, "Stay with us, Lord. Stay with us".

With the Pope's message over, the crowd broke into applause and cheering as balloons fell and mariachi music rang through the stadium.

In a Mass held in the stadium before the papal broadcast, Cardinal Jozef Tomko, president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses and the Pope's envoy, said the congress "has been an extraordinary opportunity to become aware that the Church is growing around the mystery of the Eucharist".

Enthusiasm for the congress was evident across Guadalajara, a predominantly Catholic city with a history of martyrdom during periods of religious persecution.

Local media credited the congress with the record participation in the city's annual 12 October procession for the Virgin of Zapop?n, which gathered some 3.5 million people, about half of the city's population.

In his message, the Pope announced that the next International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Quebec in 2008. The Archbishop of Quebec, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, welcomed the announcement as a chance for the Canadian province to begin a new period of evangelisation and to reverse the trend of decreasing Mass attendance. Ouellet said he hoped that holding the congress in Quebec would "awaken a new time, a new era".
James Roberts