Bishop Cozzens: The Eucharistic Congress “exceeded our expectations…”
The “more you encounter Jesus in the Eucharist,” says the chairman of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, “… the more you’re going to want to receive him in Holy Communion as often as you can…”
Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens is bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, in northwestern Minnesota, and was chairman of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, which was held July 17–21, 2024, at Lucas Oil Stadium and the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Bishop Cozzens recently spoke with Catholic World Report about the Eucharistic Revival, the National Eucharistic Congress, and how we can continue to promote devotion to the Eucharist going forward.
Catholic World Report: With the National Eucharistic Congress in the rearview mirror now, how do you think it went? Did it meet your expectations and those of all the organizers?
Bishop Andrew Cozzens: I think it exceeded our expectations in every regard. It’s hard to describe, actually, the sense of the Holy Spirit’s power at the event. It was clear that we were doing something, and were part of something, that was bigger than us.
Through the event, God was pouring out his grace. We were just caught up in something that was a beautiful work of God. We had hoped it would be the case, but I don’t think we anticipated the degree to which people would encounter and experience God in his mercy, in his goodness, through the event.
CWR: Over the course of the Congress, did anything surprise you?
Bishop Cozzens: It kind of felt like I was surprised at every turn. I was surprised in some ways by how well it was received by the bishops, and how many of the bishops said to me that it was a personal blessing for them and they felt spiritually renewed by it. I experienced the same degree of gratitude from the priests, especially those who took the “Priests Track”.
I was surprised by the beauty and the magnitude of the procession. The police counted on their cameras and said we had over 60,000 people at the procession! I hadn’t seen the park where it ended, at the War Memorial; I had looked at it on a map, of course, during the planning, but that’s it. So, when I got there at the end of the procession and was carrying the Blessed Sacrament and saw that massive crowd, I thought “Wow…this is epic!” It was really, really beautiful. Thousands upon thousands of people there.
And it was beautiful to see many young people, as I walked by with the Blessed Sacrament, they were in tears. So many people were just so grateful to have the opportunity to experience and profess publicly their joy and love for the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.
The beauty and simplicity of the procession, as we gathered together to proclaim our love for the Lord, was very moving. And seeing all of the groups, especially over 900 religious women in full habit, it was like seeing the renewal of the Church before our eyes.
CWR: It was also great to see a variety of beautiful liturgical expressions – Novus Ordo, Traditional Latin Mass, Holy Qurbana, Byzantine Rite. Why is it important to incorporate some of the Church’s liturgical variety in a Congress such as this, and what does that say about the universal Church?
Cozzens: Well, it says the Church is universal! That’s the key. And we were really trying to highlight the unity of the Church by showing some of the different and beautiful ways that the liturgy can be done, and to show that we’re all part of the same Church and we all worship the same Eucharistic Lord.
We wanted to highlight that, partially because the liturgy can be a divisive thing in our Church today, and we wanted to show that it’s actually a beautiful and unifying thing and that the diversity we have in the liturgy is a great gift. We were able to have many of the main liturgical families celebrated, which was a beautiful thing.
CWR: How did it come about that you were tasked with spearheading the Eucharistic Revival, and the Congress? And how does it feel to have that responsibility?
Bishop Cozzens: In November of 2019, I was elected as the Chair-elect of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). I followed Bishop Barron in that role, and it was Bishop Barron who had an idea that we should do some kind of Eucharistic renewal that would affect all levels of the Church.
We were already talking about that idea before the COVID crisis hit, in February of 2020. Then the COVID crisis made it even more urgent. When I became the active Chair in November of 2020, after spending a year as the Chair-elect, I was given the task of organizing the Eucharistic Revival. We spent about six months actually doing listening sessions. I had been the Director of the Synod of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis on behalf of Archbishop Hebda before this (this was even before the Synod on Synodality, it was a diocesan synod). I basically used that method for these listening sessions with parish and diocesan leaders around the country in 2021. I brought together a group of those leaders in the summer of 2021 at the seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, where we planned the 3-year Eucharistic Revival. Of course, that plan developed over time.
One of the big discernments we made during that summer was, “Should we have a national gathering, a national Eucharistic congress?” There was a lot of discussion and prayer on both sides of the question. In fact, there was a moment where we were at a stalemate, and I said “Let’s go to the chapel and do a holy hour.” And, really, after that it was clear to us that we should do something that would affect the whole country, which became the Eucharistic pilgrimages, and then a gathering, which became the Eucharistic Congress. Those two central ideas came right at that first discernment/planning meeting we had.
Then, of course, we had to present it to the bishops and get their approval, which was not an easy thing. But I did present it to them in November of 2021, and over 90% of the bishops voted in favor of it. And then, with the help of the Holy Spirit, it exceeded all of our expectations.
CWR: So you were spearheading the Eucharistic Revival efforts because of your position as Chair of the Committee.
Bishop Cozzens: Yes, and my time as Chair ran out in November of 2023, but I continued as the Chair of the Eucharistic Congress. In order to run the Congress, we founded a corporation, of which I am the Chair, and I will be for the foreseeable future. It is a majority bishops board, with also several laypeople. We’re planning for the future, and we intend to continue. In terms of how it all will look, we are discerning that with the USCCB. Archbishop Thompson of Indianapolis succeeded me as Chair of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, and he’s asked me to stay on the committee to continue heading up the Eucharistic Revival.
CWR: One of the other things that was noteworthy and exciting was the announcement that, in the lead-up to the next National Eucharistic Congress in 2033, there will be other efforts to continue this Eucharistic Revival. What sort of other efforts are in the works to keep up the momentum from this year’s Congress?
Bishop Cozzens: Yes, we hope to help dioceses and regions sponsor local Eucharistic congresses around the country in the intervening years, as well as continue the Eucharistic pilgrimages. And we also intend to continue to animate Eucharistic missionaries on the local level. We have a few hundred thousand people who have signed up and who desire to be involved as a Eucharistic missionary at the local level, whether that’s in a parish or just on their own.
I’ve written a book on being a Eucharistic missionary with Tim Glemkowski, and we also have a free online video course that’s coming out on how to be a Eucharistic missionary, so we want to continue to animate the grassroots, as well as provide some opportunities at the local and national level.
I think we’ve seen through the Eucharistic Revival, and the Congress, that the Holy Spirit is at work and that the Eucharist is really at the heart of evangelization, and that we can continue to help the bishops in their desire to evangelize.
CWR: There has been some criticism of the Congress here and there online. One that I have seen in many places is that having a large Eucharistic Congress like this downplays the reality of the Real Presence at the parish level because it makes people think they have to come to a huge, elaborate event like a Congress to really experience Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. How would you respond to such a criticism?
Bishop Cozzens: I guess I’d like to meet the person who was at the Eucharistic Congress who then says, “Oh, I guess I don’t need to go to Mass anymore,” or “Going to Mass isn’t important after what I experienced here.” I think the experience of those who attended the Congress is exactly the opposite: they’re going to go to their local church with more fervor and love for the Eucharist because they encountered it so profoundly, and they’re going to be even more grateful for the gift of their parish, whether it’s a small country parish or a large city parish because there they can receive this gift of the Eucharist every week, or every day.
I relate that to a similar critique I’ve heard, which is that we have to be careful not to promote Eucharistic Adoration too much because that might draw people away from the Mass. I’d like to meet the person who goes to regular Adoration during the week who doesn’t go to Mass! I just haven’t met that person, and I think actually the opposite is true: the more you encounter Jesus in the Eucharist, whether at a big event or a small event, whether in a small adoration chapel or inside a stadium with 50,000 people, the more you’re going to want to receive him in Holy Communion as often as you can, and the more you’re going to want to be transformed by Him and become what we eat, and live that Eucharistic life.
CWR: There are so many areas of the faith that are misunderstood, underappreciated, or barely acknowledged. Why is it important to have a specifically Eucharistic Revival?
Bishop Cozzens: Because the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith; or another way to say it is the Eucharist is the heart of the Church. It’s the life of the Church. It makes the Church, as John Paul II said. So, the Eucharistic life of the Church is strengthened as individuals come to understand what the Eucharist is and who the Eucharist is and how it calls them to deeper union with Jesus.
That’s going to affect every area of their life: it means they go to confession more, they seek to live a moral life, they’ll be more charitable. The Eucharist is the heart of all that. It’s the means that Jesus gave us to continue His living presence among us and transform us into his body. The Church needs to be the Body of Christ in the world. How will that happen? It will happen by people being more deeply drawn into the heart of the Eucharist.
You think about the heart: it’s the heart that pumps blood to the body, and if your heart is weak it doesn’t matter how strong your muscles are, right? It doesn’t matter how smart your brain is; if your heart is weak, the body’s not going to be any good. We are strong as a Church when we are united to the Lord in the Eucharist.
This is a huge issue we face, with so many people not going to regular Sunday Mass. That’s why we have so little impact on the culture, when only 17% of Catholics go to Mass on Sunday.
CWR: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Bishop Cozzens: People ask me if I was tired after the Eucharistic Congress. I was, but I wasn’t. I was full of God, I felt so full of God’s grace. I felt like the apostles must have felt the day after Pentecost: “Wow, what just happened?” with a sense of enthusiasm and joy for what God was able to do.
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