Two American women get USCCB approval for promoting cause for Sainthood

 

Sainthood causes for Benedictine sister

and disabilities education advocate get 

US bishops’ approval

Gertrude Agnes Barber is pictured with children in an undated photo in Erie, Pa. Barber founded the Barber National Institute for adults and children with intellectual disabilities and behavioral health challenges. Her cause for canonization was presented during the Fall Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops held Nov. 11-14, 2024. (OSV News photo/CNS file, courtesy Barber National Institute)

Sister Annella Zervas, a professed religious of the Order of St. Benedict, is pictured in this undated photo. Her cause for canonization was presented to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 12, 2024. (OSV News photo/courtesy of The Sister Annella Zervas, OSB, Guild)

(OSV News) — In 1918, when Benedictines in Minnesota gave Anna Cordelia Zervas her religious name, Sister Mary Annella, her mother reacted with surprise.

“But there is no St. Annella,” she is reported to have said. Her daughter replied: “Then I shall have to be the first one!”

Sister Annella’s response may prove truer than she could have possibly known, as a cause for her canonization was presented to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 12. A separate cause for Gertrude Agnes Barber, a Pennsylvania educator committed to serving children and adults with learning disabilities, was also brought forward for the bishops’ consultation.

During their fall plenary assembly in Baltimore, the U.S. bishops voted 206 to 7, with 11 abstentions, to support the local advancement of Sister Annella’s cause, and 2015 to 6, with 19 abstentions, to support the same for Barber’s cause.

Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, Sister Annella’s home diocese, introduced Sister Annella’s cause, while Bishop Edward M. Lohse of Kalamazoo, Michigan, introduced Barber’s cause on behalf of Bishop Lawrence T. Persico of Erie, Pennsylvania.

The two women died 74 years apart — Sister Annella in 1926 after suffering horribly from a rare skin condition, and Barber in 2000, after becoming a national leader and advocate in her field. Postulators for both causes are currently gathering information locally about the two women with plans to prepare a “positio” for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican.

In the Diocese of Crookston, where Sister Annella’s cause for canonization is being investigated, sources are primarily historical, whereas for Barber’s cause in the Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania, people who knew her in life are contributing their memories.

Sister Annella was born in 1900 in Moorhead, Minnesota, a growing town along the North Dakota border. She was a devout child, and, according to a biography, “demonstrated a spiritual maturity that set her apart from her peers.” In 1915, a teenaged Zervas gained her pastor’s approval and encouragement to enter the Benedictine convent in St. Joseph, Minnesota. She entered as a postulant that year, and four years later she professed her first vows. After her final vows in 1922, she was assigned to teach music and serve as an organist in Bismarck, North Dakota.

A short time later, itchy and swelling skin and hair loss — to the point where her visiting parents did not recognize her — led her to seek medical treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The disease progressed, and her parents brought her home to Moorhead in the fall of 1924.

“Despite her severe physical suffering, which included violent chills, high temperatures, and painful attacks of itching, scratching, and weeping, her mental faculties always remained intact,” according to a biography. “The pus-like discharge from the skin disease had a sharp, biting, and decayed odor. Her frail body exfoliated between a pint and a quart a day of skin. At one point, she existed on almost no food.”

Despite her suffering, Sister Annella remained cheerful, and amid fits of pain, she prayed. “Yes, Lord, send me more pain, but give me strength to bear it,” she reportedly said. She only asked for God’s will to be done. She died on the vigil of the Assumption, Aug. 14, 1926. After a funeral Mass in Moorhead, her remains were buried 160 miles southeast at St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph.

Shortly after her death, reports of cures attributed to Sister Annella’s intercession began to circulate, and local devotion to her persisted for decades. However, it took one man’s mysterious encounter and dogged determination to revive contemporary interest in the holy woman.

Patrick Norton, a devout Catholic and paint contractor in central Minnesota, was working on a replica of the Lourdes’ grotto in the cemetery of St. Joseph’s Monastery on Oct. 7, 2010 — the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary — when he said a sister in full habit approached and began a conversation. After talking a short time, she said goodbye and “disappeared,” he recalled. She never told him his name, but he was struck by her large blue eyes. He later recognized the sister as Sister Annella, and he made it his mission to spread her story.

Sister Annella’s suffering “reminds me of the passion of our Lord,” said Norton, 62, who was cared for as an orphaned infant by Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity in then-Bombay, India, before being adopted as a teen into a Connecticut family. After trying to gain traction for Sister Annella’s cause for years, he believes “God opened every door” to make it possible to move forward at this time.

In October 2023, Bishop Cozzens announced to a group of Catholics devoted to the nun that he was beginning an inquiry into her life that could lead to a cause for Sister Annella’s canonization. The effort is led by canon lawyers Amanda Zurface, the cause’s postulator, and Msgr. David Baumgartner, president of the newly formed Sister Annella Guild. The guild is charged with advancing Sister Annella’s cause.

More consultation is needed before Bishop Cozzens officially opens a cause, Zurface told OSV News. However, Sister Annella’s “life was a testament to heroic virtue, and it offers us a profound witness of how suffering can be transformed into an offering of love for Christ and his church,” Msgr. Baumgartner said.

Speaking to the bishops Nov. 12, Bishop Cozzens called Sister Annella an “apostle of suffering for our day.”

“Many people have expressed that her witness to the value of suffering has helped them embrace their own suffering with faith in God’s goodness,” he said. “Sister Annella is a true teacher of our Catholic faith, witnessing that each person, regardless of their struggle, has great dignity and is created for intimacy with God. And she teaches us that God is our truest friend, and our vocations are good even when they take a different path than we might expect.”

While those who knew Sister Annella in life have since died, memories of Gertrude Barber are still fresh for those with whom she worked and cared. Born 11 years after Sister Annella in Erie, Pennsylvania, Barber grew up in a large Catholic family, attended Penn State University and began a teaching career in the Erie School District in 1931. She eventually became a school psychologist, where her job included turning students away from the school because of their intellectual disabilities.

“She was deeply affected as she saw parents face the agony of either keeping their children at home without access to an education or sending them away to a distant institution where they would be segregated from the world,” states a short biography circulated by leaders of her canonization cause. “Dr. Barber was determined to find another way.”

Her deep faith and view of all as children of God led Barber to begin a decades-long crusade to educate children with special needs. In 1952, she opened a classroom in Erie for students with intellectual disabilities, which expanded to meet the needs of other students with special needs as well as adults. She founded the Dr. Gertrude A. Barber Center, which included services for people with intellectual disabilities at every life stage, and her work received significant educational, civic and religious recognition. In 1990, at age 78, she traveled to Washington to witness the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Barber’s cause officially opened in 2019, and she is now titled a “servant of God.” “So many people have been inspired by her, and that’s what’s motivated all of this — you look at the life of somebody like Gertrude, who followed Christ so closely in her mission,” Msgr. Tom McSweeney, a priest of the Diocese of Erie and the cause’s postulator, told OSV News.

As the executive vice president of what is now named the Barber National Institute, Maureen Barber-Carey carries on her aunt’s legacy. She recalls Barber’s work as driven by her deep faith. She noted that Barber once gave her one of her jackets, and pinned to the inside of the sleeve was a prayer.

“She truly believed she was a servant of God, and she was doing God’s work on earth,” Barber-Carey said. “It was to have persons with disabilities acknowledged — that they were children of God, just as a person without a disability is, and as a child of God, they deserve every right to have every opportunity to be the best they can possibly be.”

Erie Mayor Joe Schember warmly recalls Barber’s work with his daughter, Jodi, who is now 39. “She did seem holy to me,” Schember, a Catholic, said of Barber. “She was a very open person, a very friendly person.”

Speaking to his fellow bishops Nov. 12, Bishop Lohse said that Barber’s “life and witness call us to remember and honor the presence of Christ, even in the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters, and to see reflected in them the beauty of a loving Creator.”

After the “positio” for each woman is sent to Rome, it is to be reviewed and sent to the pope for a decree of heroic virtues. If the pope grants that decree, the person is given the title “venerable.”

In general, for a cause to proceed to beatification, a confirmed miracle must be attributed to the venerable’s intercession. A second miracle must be confirmed before a person is canonized.

“Especially in this time, people are longing for God,” said Norton, Sister Annella’s longtime promoter. “These saints can bring souls to God. Not just one, not just two, but thousands and millions.”

Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.

Bishop Cozzens says the Eucharistic Congress exceeded expectations

 

Bishop Cozzens: The Eucharistic Congress “exceeded our expectations…”

The “more you encounter Jesus in the Eucharist,” says the chairman of the 10^th National Eucharistic Congress, “… the more you’re going to want to receive him in Holy Communion as often as you can…”

Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who spearheaded the National Eucharistic Revival and congress taking place in Indianapolis from July 17-21, 2024, takes questions from the media. (Credit: Zelda Caldwell)

Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens is bishop of the Diocese of Crookston, in northwestern Minnesota, and was chairman of the 10^th 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.

A concluding statement about the National Eucharistic Congress by Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens

 

STATEMENT FROM BISHOP ANDREW H. COZZENS, S.T.D., D.D. CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS

July 27, 2024     “If then my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and heal their land.” (2 Chr 7:14)     Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, At the opening Holy Hour of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, on Wednesday July, 17, 2024, I prayed these very words, inviting tens of thousands in the stadium and thousands more watching virtually to join me in asking the Lord to pardon our sins and heal our land.    Then on Friday evening, July 19th, we all united around Our Eucharistic Lord again in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to make reparation for our sins. We humbled ourselves in the presence of Jesus, Our Lord and Savior. Recognizing that if one member of the Body of Christ suffers, we all suffer, we prayed together for healing and forgiveness. We were lead through a litany of healing and repentance in the Eucharist by Fr. Boniface Hicks, O.S.B. Many people told me that this moment of communal penance and reparation was a moment of great healing for them. It was amongst the most powerful experiences of grace for me personally during those holy days.     Just one week later, on July 26th in Paris, where the newly restored Cathedral of Notre Dame stands as an iconic reminder to our belief in the importance of the Mass, which makes spiritually present to us the Last Supper, nearly 1 billion men, women and children, in person and through live telecast, witnessed the public mockery of the Mass, the “source and summit of the Christian life”  (LG, 11). During the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics, the famous DaVinci Masterpiece The Last Supper was depicted in heinous fashion, leaving us in such shock, sorrow and righteous anger that words cannot describe it.    Brothers and sisters, we know that what the enemy intends for evil, God uses for good. We know that “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more” (Rom 5:20).    Throughout salvation history, the Lord and his prophets have called us—the people of God—to respond to the darkness of evil with the light that comes from the Lord. At the heart of this call are prayer and fasting. Jesus told us that some demons “can only come out through prayer [and through fasting]” (Mk 29:9). He modeled this for us when he spent 40 days in the desert before beginning his public ministry, praying and fasting, begging God the Father to prepare him for all that lay ahead—including his perfect gift of self through his death on the Cross.    We believe that the Last Supper is united with the death of Christ on the Cross and, together with the Resurrection, these events are all one in the Paschal Mystery. This passover, which begins at the Last Supper, is the most sacred moment in the life of Jesus. This is when Jesus offered his life for us so that we could share in his divine life forever.    Jesus experienced his Passion anew Friday night in Paris when his Last Supper was publicly defamed. As his living body, we are invited to enter into this moment of passion with him, this moment of public shame, mockery, and persecution. We do this through prayer and fasting. And our greatest prayer—in season and out of season—is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. As the Church throughout the world gathers tomorrow at the Lord’s Altar, let us do so with renewed zeal. Let us pray for healing and forgiveness for all those who participated in this mockery. Let us commit ourselves this week to greater prayer and fasting in reparation for this sin. Perhaps you could attend Mass once more this week or do an extra holy hour? We may also be called upon to speak about this evil. Let us do so with love and charity, but also with firmness. France and the entire world are saved by the love poured out through the Mass, which came to us through the Last Supper. Inspired by the many martyrs who shed their blood to witness to the truth of the Mass, we will not stand aside and quietly abide as the world mocks our greatest gift from the Lord Jesus. Rather, through our prayer and fasting, we will ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us with the virtue of fortitude so that we may preach Christ—our Lord and Savior, truly present in the Eucharist—for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls. Let us, strengthened by Christ, be the Eucharistic Missionaries we are called to be.

+In Christ Jesus, Most Rev. Andrew H. Cozzens, S.T.D., D.D. Bishop of Crookston Chairman of the Board of the National Eucharistic Congress

The National Eucharistic Congress 2024 comes to an end; next Congress announced to 2033

 

National Eucharistic Congress Ends With Prayer for ‘New Pentecost’ for US Church

At the end of Mass, Bishop Andrew Cozzens announced another National Eucharistic Congress in 2033, the Year of Redemption, marking 2,000 years since Jesus’ crucifixion. Another Eucharistic pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles will take place in 2025.

More than 60,000 people attended the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-21. The closing Mass is shown on July 21. (photo: Jeffrey Bruno)

Courtney Mares/CNANationJuly 21, 2024

INDIANAPOLIS — The National Eucharistic Congress concluded Sunday with a Mass with tens of thousands of people in an NFL football stadium, where the crowd prayed for “a new Pentecost” in the U.S. Church.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presided over the closing Mass in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium on July 21 as Pope Francis’ special envoy for the event. He shared that the Pope told him that he desires the congress to lead to “conversion to the Eucharist.” 

“The Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a gift and the fulfillment of his mission,” said the cardinal pro-prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelization.

“Those who choose to stay with Jesus will be sent by Jesus,” Cardinal Tagle added. “Let us go to proclaim Jesus zealously and joyfully for the life of the world.” 

The nearly 60,000 Eucharistic congress attendees were sent out with “a great commissioning” on Sunday morning in which keynote speakers urged participants to proclaim the Gospel in every corner of the country. 

“What the Church needs is a new Pentecost,” Mother Adela Galindo, the foundress of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, told the crowd.

“The Church must be faithful to the Gospel … not watering down the message of the Gospel,” the Nicaraguan sister said. “We were born for these times. It is a time to go out in haste to a world that urgently needs to hear God’s word and God’s truth.” 

“Here is what we need to proclaim,” the diminutive Nicaraguan sister said. “That no darkness is greater than the light of the Eucharist. That no sin is greater than the merciful heart of the Eucharist.”

“Basically, brothers and sisters, that love is greater than death!” exclaimed the nun, who received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the crowd.

More than 1,600 priests, seminarians, bishops and cardinals processed into Mass in the Indianapolis Colts’ stadium in a dramatic opening procession lasting 25 minutes. An additional 1,236 religious sisters and brothers were praying in the stands, according to the event organizers. 

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra played the classical hymns Panis Angelicus and Ave Verum Corpus as Communion was brought to tens of thousands of people in the stadium.

Many people commented on the incredible energy, positivity and hope among the congress participants who traveled from all 50 states to take part in the five-day event, July 17-21.

“I don’t want to sound dramatic, but the National Eucharistic Congress has been something of a triumph — a crowded, crazy, and occasionally chaotic triumph. Peace and joy reign,” Stephen White, the executive director of The Catholic Project, commented on X.

“His presence is palpable and pervasive. The Lord is here,” White added.

Dominican Father Aquinas Guilbeau predicted that the legacy of the National Eucharistic Congress will be like that of the 1993 World Youth Day held in Denver for the Church in the U.S.

“Its grace will shape the Church for the next 50 years,” Father Guilbeau said.

Nearly 60,000 tickets were sold for the National Eucharistic Congress, according to organizers, including the day passes that were sold after the start of the event. 

Cardinal Tagle began his homily by greeting the crowd in more than five languages, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish, French and Italian.

“The Holy Father prays, as we all do, that the congress may bear fruit, much fruit, for the renewal of the Church and of society in the United States of America,” Cardinal Tagle said.

In his homily, the cardinal noted that “where there is a lack or a weakening of missionary zeal, maybe it is partly due to a weakening in the appreciation of gifts and giftedness.”

“If our horizon is only that of achievement, success and profit, there is no room to see and receive gratuitous gifts. There is no place for gratitude and self-giving,” he added. “There will only be a relentless search for self-affirmation that eventually becomes oppressive and tiring, leading to more self-absorption or individualism.

Cardinal Tagle underlined that the Eucharist is “a privileged moment to experience Jesus’ mission as a gift of himself.”

At the end of Mass, Bishop Andrew Cozzens announced to roaring applause that the U.S. bishops are planning to hold another National Eucharistic Congress in 2033, the Year of Redemption, marking 2,000 years since Jesus’ crucifixion. 

The bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, who has spearheaded the Eucharistic Revival, also announced that another Eucharistic pilgrimage from Indianapolis to Los Angeles will take place in 2025.

“What do you say as you come to the end of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress?” Bishop Cozzens said. “It has been my experience, and I hope yours, that we’ve lived an experience of heaven. Of course, the Eucharist is a foretaste of heaven.”

In Indianapolis, 50,000 Catholics worship the Lord Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

 

For Catholic pilgrims, all roads lead to Indy for an old-style devotion in modern stadium setting

BY  PETER SMITH

July 18, 2024

Like the star of an arena tour, a spotlight illuminated the glittering, golden vessel carried by a Catholic bishop. Inside, it held a round communion host, which Catholics believe is the full presence of Jesus in the appearance of bread.

The bishop placed it on an altar at the center of Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Wednesday evening. It was the culmination of more than two years of preparations and two months of four cross-country pilgrimages destined for the Midwestern city and the first National Eucharistic Congress in more than 80 years. Thousands of Catholics converged for the start of a five-day gathering focused on devotion to the Eucharist and the core Catholic doctrine that it is not merely a symbol but is the reality of Jesus among them.

The congress reflects bishops’ attempt to revive traditional devotions that have waned in recent generations, even as some have questioned how this movement was forged. There has been debate involving politics as well as disputed research over whether most Catholics actually believe the doctrine.

The stadium remained quiet for a half hour of devotional adoration, followed by prayers, multiple speakers and an extended session led by a worship band in front of a stage set and lighting that simulated the look of gothic stained-glass windows. The music ranged from the solemn hymn “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” to contemporary, electronic-infused music that more resembled that of an evangelical megachurch than of a Mass songbook.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who brought in the Eucharist, read a gospel passage in which Jesus calls himself the bread of life.

“We want every Catholic to realize that you are alive in the Eucharist and to encounter your love,” said Cozzens, of the Diocese of Cookston, Minnesota, in an extended prayer.

Attendees expressed enthusiasm.

“It’s a beautiful thing to see so many families, religious (order members), priests, the whole church here represented,” said Sister Teresa Christine DesGeorges, one of several members of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles who traveled from California. “There was something about being in that room with so many thousands of people for the same reason that reignites the faith.”

There were nine National Eucharistic Congresses between 1895 and 1941, an era when Catholics also gathered by the tens of thousands in stadiums and parades in their home cities for rosary prayers, Eucharistic adoration and other traditional devotions. Such events displayed the growing numbers and clout of the Catholic population, then largely defined by their urban neighborhoods and parishes made up of European immigrant families.

By the 1950s, mass devotional gatherings had declined, and liturgical reforms of the 1960s put emphasis on other areas, such as preaching, lay involvement and congregational singing.

Many churches retained such practices on smaller scales, but this event coincides with a push by some to revive many older traditions, including the Latin Mass.

A 2021 document from U.S. bishops, “The Mystery of the Eucharist in the Life of the Church,” arose amid debate over whether bishops should withhold Communion from Catholic politicians like President Joe Biden or Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Democrats who supported abortion rights. Following cautionary signals from the Vatican, the document ultimately avoided that direct question, though it called on Catholics to examine whether they align with church teachings.

Some bishops also said the Eucharistic doctrine needed a fresh emphasis, citing a 2019 survey that found most church members didn’t believe it.

But some researchers have questioned the phrasing of that survey.

A follow-up poll in 2022 — by the Georgetown University-affiliated Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate — used multiple phrasings and found that 64% of Catholics expressed belief in Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist in at least one response, as did virtually all who attended Mass weekly.

Among the main speakers Wednesday was Pope Francis’ diplomatic representative to the U.S., Cardinal Christophe Pierre. While many traditionalist Catholics have been disenchanted with Pope Francis, such as with his outreach toward LGBTQ+ people, Francis has endorsed the Eucharistic revival and personally blessed the custom-made monstrance used to display the Communion host at the congress.

Pierre underscored themes of the Francis papacy, including “synodality” — church-wide dialogue — and bridging cultural divides.

“Our encounter with Christ’s real presence in the sacrament opens us to an encounter with him in the rest of our lives,” he said. “Not only is he present in our family, friends, communities, but he is also present in our encounters with people from whom we would otherwise consider ourselves divided. This might include people from a different economic class or race. People who challenge our way of thinking, people whose perspective is informed by experiences that differ greatly from our own.”

Another speaker, Sister Bethany Madonna of the Sisters of Life, spoke of how Eucharistic adoration is integral to the group’s work with pregnant women considering abortion.

The five-day event includes stadium gatherings, breakout sessions, Masses, rosary prayers and more. In keeping with the traditionalist tenor, there are displays of saints’ relics and of a replica of the Shroud of Turin, which some believe is Jesus’ burial cloth.

The event included greetings in English and Spanish, reflecting the large Hispanic presence amid the diverse crowd

Logistical delays led to long registration lines Wednesday, but the stadium gradually filled to roughly 70 percent of capacity.

Tim Glemkowski, chief executive officer of the congress, said he anticipates 50,000 attendees over the course of the congress. “We did a lot of things over the past couple of years to make it affordable,” he said, including some discounted tickets as well as free admission for young children.

Event organizers have studiously emphasized that it’s not political and wasn’t timed to coincide with the Republican National Convention.

But the event comes during a conservative Catholic moment in U.S politics. Even as the Eucharistic gathering was underway, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert, accepted the GOP nomination as the vice presidential running mate of Donald Trump. And some U.S. Catholics are voicing their belief that God spared Trump’s life in Pennsylvania on July 13, associating the assassination attempt with an apparition of the Virgin Mary that same date in 1917 in Fatima, Portugal.

Catholics voters are far from monolithic and are often seen as a crucial swing voters, though traditionalist Catholics are often supportive of conservative candidates and policies such as opposition to abortion.

Glemkowski said he’s aware of the current events, but “everyone who’s here and everyone watching at home is clear, what this is about is the church unified and encountering Jesus in the Eucharist. As long as we stay focused on that, people will see this is not a political movement but a movement of grace.”

___

Freelance photographer Doug McSchooler in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.