The Eucharist ‘calls us to justice’

The scourge of poverty was an abiding theme at the 51st  Eucharistic Congress, at Cebu in the Philippines, with the Pope’s envoy calling for “a third world war against the cruelty of dogs getting fed with sumptuous, organic food, while poor children scramble for scraps from the table”.

Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, said the Eucharist unites the faithful regardless of their social background.

“The Eucharist calls us to justice. No other religion elevates justice to this level. No other religion elevates the poor to this level,” he said. He called it the major challenge in a world that “kills children in the womb” and “spends more on arms than on food”.

A Filipino former garbage picker and advocate for street children, Maria Georgia “Maggie” Cogtas, highlighted the gross neglect of children in her country, which has a special veneration of the child Jesus with the feast of the Santo Niño of Cebu celebrated on the Thursday after Epiphany.

“On our peripheries were children scavenging, begging, busy selling cold water, food and candles in the perimeters of our churches,” said Cogtas. “As we happily celebrated the child Jesus, other children needed our attention. What have we done for them? Or are they also receiving the pathetic and emotionless look I got from people back when I was a street child?”

Ms Cogtas, a 21-year-old psychology graduate, impressed the 12,000-strong crowd with her testimony describing her struggles as the youngest of seven children abandoned by their parents. She paid her school fees with what she earned from scavenging and received a scholarship from a Catholic organisation that requires recipients to help street children after training and formation.

In a video message to the closing Mass attended by a million people, Pope Francis said Filipinos spread the Gospel wherever they lived and worked in the world. He said Christ’s presence is “a summons to go forth as missionaries to bring forth the message of the father’s tenderness, forgiveness and mercy to every man, woman and child”.