By Tom Tracy, OSV News
NAPLES, Fla. (OSV News) — A large urban setting with ample family-friendly attractions will likely host the next National Eucharistic Congress in 2029, following a series of regional events beginning next year.
The 11th National Eucharistic Congress aims to build on the successes and lessons learned last year in Indianapolis at the 10th congress, Jason Shanks, CEO of National Eucharistic Congress Inc., told OSV News.
Held in Indianapolis July 17-21, 2024, the congress drew more than 60,000 attendees and was a high point of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative by the U.S. Catholic bishops.
“There are a lot of logistical things that we learned that we are going to want to tweak,” Shanks said. “In terms of space needs, we are anticipating (needing) more — people seemed to have had a great experience in Indianapolis, and hopefully they will bring friends and so we are going to be looking for even more space.”
Shanks announced the year chosen for the next congress Feb. 7 at the 2025 Legatus Summit for Catholic business leadership at the Ritz-Carlton resort in Naples.
The decision to hold the next national gathering in 2029 was made in consultation with the bishops, he said. He expects to make a formal presentation on plans for the congress to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the body’s fall plenary assembly in November.
“We had a very short time frame to pull off the 2024 Eucharistic congress, and we had no history to go off of, with the last one in 1941,” Shanks told OSV News. “The good news is we have, frankly, a longer time frame with more experience and knowledge to improve it next time around. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes work with registrations and logistics and things that we can get right going forward, and we can make those improvements.”
As before, all Catholics will be invited to attend the 2029 Eucharistic congress. Shanks described the 2024 event as drawing a broad demographic of participants, both in terms of age and level of faith formation, with “a nice balance between people who were sort of checking out their faith and people who really were engaged — and we want that to continue.”
The National Eucharistic Congress Inc. nonprofit was formed in 2022 to support the bishops’ vision for the National Eucharistic Revival. It oversaw not only the congress but also the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, two of the revival’s major components.
Masses, Eucharistic adoration and public processions associated with the eight-week, four-route national pilgrimage drew in some cases thousands of people, with the largest perhaps being the 5-mile procession in St. Paul, Minnesota, with crowd estimates exceeding 7,000 adorers.
Another national Eucharistic pilgrimage is scheduled this year to go from Indianapolis to Los Angeles from May 18 to June 22.
Meanwhile, regional events will lead up to the 2029 national congress, Shanks told OSV News.
“Starting next year, we are going to incubate regional congresses or events around the country,” he said. “So, while we look at a National Eucharistic Congress, we are also looking at making it accessible around the country in 2026, 2027 and 2028.”
“We are exploring what that might look like to really help dioceses — and parishes in particular — with their work and with stuff they can probably maintain: feeder events of 10,000 people … around the country,” he added. “Next year we are looking to pilot our first one, and we don’t know where that is going to be either.”
Among the dozens of presenters at the 2024 congress were Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, and founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries; speaker and author Sister Josephine Garrett of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth; Father Mike Schmitz of “The Bible in a Year” podcast; and Mother Adela Galindo of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the pro-prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelization, attended as Pope Francis’ special envoy.
The National Eucharistic Revival is now focusing on its Year of Mission, in which Catholics are encouraged to become “Eucharistic missionaries” who share the reality and impact of Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist with others.
Tom Tracy writes for OSV News from Florida.
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