The first Eucharistic Congress in 83 years brings 60,000 Catholics together to revive their love of the Eucharist

Bella Young

Multimedia Correspondent

At the first National Eucharistic Congress in 83 years, over 60,000 Catholics gathered in a celebration of the Eucharist. With Mass and speaker sessions being spread across a 1–2-mile radius of the Indianapolis Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, there were not many that missed the presence of the congress. For those in attendance the excitement came not only through the masses of their peers, but through the source and summit of the Catholic Church — the Eucharist.
The congress, as part of the three-year Eucharistic Revival, sought to bring people together for one goal — revival. The Eucharistic Congress website affirms this belief, “At the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, our Catholic Family will gather to experience profound, personal renewal through the power of Christ’s love. Like a new Pentecost, this transformation will flow out from Indianapolis to bring revival in our communities as the church returns to her first love — the source and summit of our faith.”
The three-year Eucharistic Revival comes on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic which significantly reduced the number of people going to Mass, even after restrictions were lifted. In a study published by the Pew Research Center in March of 2023, it was shown that only 33 percent of Catholic U.S. adults attended an in-person Mass in November 2022. This was not because they were attending Mass online either, as 22 percent of Catholic U.S. adults attended online Mass in November 2022.
It was these statistics that prompted the formation of National Eucharistic Congress, Inc., led by a governing board of five bishops and four lay people, chaired by Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Crookston, Minnesota. The goal of this group was to bring the revival, congress and pilgrimages to fruition, and so they did with the National Eucharistic Revival launching on Corpus Christi Sunday in 2022. With the congress having taken place July 17–21, there is still one year left of the Eucharistic Revival.
“Every Movement Needs a Moment,” is what sprawls across the front page of the National Eucharistic Congress website. This slogan is fitting as the National Eucharistic Congress was the moment of the Eucharistic Revival movement. The website reads further, “The Congress will fulfill in a moment the vision of the Eucharistic Revival. Together we will encounter the living Jesus Christ, experience renewal, and be sent out ‘for the life of the world.’”
For the 60,000 in attendance, it was evident that this was the moment. The excitement was palpable as people flooded Lucas Oil Stadium on the first night of the congress, filling the entirety of the bottom bowl of the stadium. It was there that the perpetual pilgrims of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage came out of the four corners of the stadium and met in the middle signifying the convergence and coming together of Catholics from across the country.
The culmination of the procession of pilgrims was evident when an awe-inspiring silence fell over the crowd as Bishop Cozzens carried a specially made monstrance holding Jesus to the altar in the middle of the field. Tom Kissel, parishioner, St. Pius X Parish, Edgewood, called this moment “divinely inspirational.”
Another member of the Diocese of Covington, Joseph Collopy, parishioner, St. Henry Parish, Elsmere, called it “a foretaste of Heaven.”
Along with Mr. Kissel and Mr. Collopy, Bishop John Iffert spoke
about his experience at the congress. “More people have the sense that they are missionaries for
Jesus. The people who are here, the lay people who are faithful to the Church have a greater sense of their missionary vocation in the life of the Church,” said Bishop Iffert. “It is interesting, it is both true that the Church is not smaller than it used to be, in absolute terms we are as large as ever … as a percentage there are fewer people who are regularly active in the faith or who think of themselves as Catholic. But if we think of the Church as a living mission of Jesus, the number of people who embrace that kind of identity, I really think more of the Church, than I have ever known it, has embraced that kind of identity.”
This embrace of missionary identity, Bishop Iffert noted is particularly poignant in young people. “Young people are looking for something larger than themselves to invest their lives in,” he said.
Recalling the homily of the Mass on Thursday morning, Bishop Iffert speaks about growing closer to Christ. “It is all in service to calling people to that personal relationship with Jesus. We want people to have a more intimate, stronger, personal, relationship with Jesus … You think of a wheel, with the spokes coming out of the hub of the wheel, if you think of Jesus as the hub of that wheel, the further you’re out on that wheel the further you are from Jesus, but the further you are from others as well. It is by moving toward the hub, toward Jesus, toward the center, that you not only draw closer to Jesus but to others as well.”
The spirit of revival filled the Indianapolis Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium, with crowds rivaling the size concerts or football games. It was five days of excitement, love and adoration. Sixty thousand people from 17 countries, 50 states, speaking seventeen different languages, celebrating the source and summit of the Catholic Church together.
While the Eucharistic Congress was a pinnacle
moment in the movement, the movement is not yet complete. The revival, which started in 2022, continues. At the summation of the Congress, calling on the many in attendance, it was announced that the final year of Eucharistic Revival will be marked by a Year of Mission. This missionary year introduces an initiative entitled Walk With One.
Walk With One invites everyone to identify someone in their life who does not know Jesus or who has fallen away from the faith and walk with them back to Jesus, embodying the spirit of the Eucharistic Revival.