In his address on the opening night of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the US, reminded attendees that the “Roman Pontiff, as the successor of Peter, is the perpetual and visible principle and foundation of unity of both the bishops and of the faithful.”
“What a gift this is!” an enthusiastic and joyful Pierre said, “What a gift this is, that we can be united as a Church through our Holy Father. At the same time, what brings us together at this Congress–the Holy Eucharist– is also an immense gift for unity. As St. John Paul II said, ‘The Eucharist is the sacrament and source of the Church’s unity.’ We don’t need to look for unity somewhere else, but in the Eucharist.”
At a time of such division in both our country and our Church, a call to unity is timely, and a pervading sense of unity was felt by attendees.
“Perhaps our main prayer for this Eucharistic Congress should be this,” Cardinal Pierre emphasized. “That we, as a Church, may grow in our unity, so that we become more fruitful in our mission. This was the prayer that Jesus made to the Father on the night when he instituted the Eucharist: ‘That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.’”
Cardinal Pierre spoke of synodality, and Pope Francis’s frequent calling on the faithful to “listen to one another and listen to the Spirit in the person we listen (to).”
In a 2023 interview with America Magazine’s Gerard O’Connell, Cardinal Pierre expressed “shock” that many U.S. Catholic bishops were unaware that synodality had developed in South America over the last few decades and are still struggling to understand the concept.
When Pierre served as nuncio to Mexico under Benedict XVI, he arrived in that country as the Fifth Conference of CELAM concluded. Pierre recalled that Aparecida conference as a “kind of synodal process of the South American bishops,” calling South American the “only continent that has made such a synodal process.”
“The bishops developed a kind of dynamic of working together and looking for solutions together, to evangelize better, which is what the synod (on synodality) is all about,” Pierre said in his interview with America.
“When I arrived in Mexico in 2007,” said Pierre, “ I read the document of Aparecida. It was six years before the election of Pope Francis. I read it, and I said, ‘My God, this is new! The bishops finally have developed a pastoral plan which is the result of their synodal approach.”
Fast forward to 2016, when Cardinal Pierre arrived in the US and remarked that he was “astounded” that many of the bishops didn’t know what had happened in Aparecida.
“They did not know that Evangelii Gaudium, the first document of Pope Francis, was rooted in Aparecida. They had not seen what had happened in their own continent, in South America. This is very serious, because what has happened was not banal. It was the beginning of what we live today. They didn’t know that the pope was one of the bishops at Aparecida, or that the whole South American church had made a tremendous effort of synodality.”
In this interview, Pierre spoke of those in the church who had referred to synodality as “Bergoglio’s idea,” which, of course, it was not.
“The reality is that behind the vision of the pope there is Aparecida,” said Pierre. “Bergoglio is not the inventor of that approach. The Holy Spirit inspired this synodal approach at Aparecida. Six years later, Bergoglio was elected pope by the grace of the Holy Spirit. That’s my faith. And the new pope followed in the footsteps of Aparecida.”
The Holy Spirit was powerfully at work in Indianapolis, and the Holy Father’s representative delivered an address that invited those in attendance to see beyond the Church as it is here in America, to embrace Pope Francis’s dreams of a missionary, spirit-led Church, and to understand that a true Eucharistic revival thrives in a globally-focused body of Christ.
To Go Where the Spirit Leads
Our group of two mothers and four young children was weary after Cardinal Pierre’s address that evening; we had driven over three hours to arrive in Indy, only to wait in line for over two hours to register for the event. Upon entering Lucas Oil Stadium that evening, however, the children uttered cries of, “Wow!” and “The wait was worth it!”
The excitement in the air was palpable, and I have never felt safer with my children in such a large crowd before. Nuns, priests, and Catholic families were everywhere and we were all there for the same reason: to worship our Lord in the Eucharist.
When Bishop Donald Cozzens entered with the Mexican-made 4-foot monstrance and adoration began in a crowd of over 50,000 people, the reverent silence was awe-inspiring. I remember thinking at that moment, “This, this, is what heaven is truly like. All in unity, all worshiping the Lord in silent awe, all here because we chose to be here and made the sacrifices needed to come.”
When we left the stadium that night, we were a little changed. My ten-year-old saw a homeless man holding out an empty cup the next day and asked me for money so he could fill the man’s cup. His cup had been filled … so, he was prepared to fill the cup of another.
This is the Holy Spirit at work, and the fruit of adoration.
As Cardinal Pierre reminded us that evening. “Maybe this should be the main fruit of the Eucharistic Revival. To be a people animated by the Spirit.”
Image: YouTube
Kristi McCabe is an award-winning freelance writer, Catechist, a former teacher and editor who lives with her family in Owensboro, Kentucky. As an adoptive mother of four and an adoptee herself, Kristi is an avid supporter of pro-life ministries. She is active in her local parish and has served as Eucharistic minister and in various children's ministries.
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