Eucharistic congress opened Sept. 8 and will include a eucharistic procession in the old central district of Quito, Ecuador
The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress began Sept. 8 in Quito, Ecuador, with a strong call to build fraternity as a way of healing the wounds of a world full of fractures and violence.
The opening celebration included a message sent by Pope Francis, in which he said that “we’re one and only in such unity we can serve the world and heal it.”
The congress, which will conclude Sept. 15, was planned to promote — in line with the eucharistic invitation — human brotherhood, despite many divides, under the theme “Fraternity to Heal the World.”
Archbishop Alfredo Espinoza of Quito said in his homily during the opening Mass that the city became “a great eucharistic tent” and people from all over the world will think about a mystery that “challenges us to be real builders of fraternity so to heal the world’s wounds,” in a time “full of violence, death, and wars.”
The opening Mass took place in Quito’s Bicentennial Park in the presence of thousands of people and dozens of bishops. To make the celebration even more joyful, 1,600 children received their first Communion during the Mass.
Cardinal Baltazar Porras Cardozo, retired archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela, was also present as pontifical legate (personal representative) for the congress.
For Bishop José Adalberto Jiménez of the Aguarico Vicariate, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the combination of the perspective of adoration brought by the Eucharist with the call to a living exercise of faith was noticeable in Pope Francis’s message to the congress, which the pontiff sent along while on an apostolic trip to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore.
“The pontiff invited us to be on the side of those who suffer — and do so with concrete gestures. That idea of a proactive fraternity greatly impacted me,” Bishop Jiménez said, adding that the pope pointed out that simple actions should “lead us to a new world, a fairer and more humane one.”
“We have to touch the wounds of the social reality, tainted by social injustice caused by political lukewarmness and corruption,” as well as “deaths provoked by immigration” and poverty, “by criminal gangs, by the violation of the prisoners rights, by the pain of the families of alcoholics and drug addicts,” and by “the illegal mining that is destroying the Amazon,” Bishop Jiménez said, pointing to painful realities of the region.
“The congress was preceded by a theological symposium (Sept. 4-7) that gathered more than 600 theologians from all parts of the world. Their scholarly reflections will now be followed by a more pastoral and catechetical approach,” Father Juan Carlos Garzón, secretary-general of the congress, said.
With the theme “Wounded World,” the first full day of the congress allowed participants to think about some of the sufferings that currently exist in the world.
The congress will conclude with a eucharistic procession on the streets of the old central district of Quito Sept. 14, and the closing Mass will be celebrated Sept. 15.
Father Garzón said that it’s been 20 years since the last International Eucharistic Congress happened in a Latin American country. In 2004, it was organized in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“We’re receiving participants from 60 nations, but the event will certainly have a Latin American and an Ecuadorian face. I think our region’s Church has a special contribution to give when it comes to promoting fraternity, in line with the pope’s message,” Father Garzón said.
It’s also a region that has been dealing with violence, division and wounds, he added.
“We’re in an injured world. We’ll hear people talking about how they work in tough places, without seeing the others as enemies. We hope our minds will be open to receive the Holy Spirit’s blow,” he said.
Bishop Jiménez recalled that the eucharistic congress this year coincides with the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the South American country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1874, Archbishop José Ignacio Checa y Barba of Quito presided at the ceremony — side by side with President Gabriel García Moreno — that marked the first time a nation did so.
“That has a tremendous spiritual significance and will certainly throw light in the social dimension of the Church’s work as well,” Bishop Jiménez said.
“May this congress open the way for us to the Christ of the Tabernacle, and may He lead us to the suffering Christs of our sick brothers, marginalized and forgotten by society,” he said.
