Pope Benedict said “your Assembly has paid great attention to this event, which is also part of the modernisation programme of the Church in Ireland. The theme, recalls the centrality of the Eucharistic Mystery for the growth of the life of faith and every authentic process of Church renewal”.
Pope Benedict also remarked that this week’s meeting falls on the 50th anniversary of the Eucharistic Congress in Munich, Bavaria, which marked a turning point in understanding these ecclesial events, and which the Pope said “I had the pleasure of attending that assembly in person, as a young professor of theology”. In addition, he said the 2012 Congress in Ireland will have a jubilee character, as it will be the 50th Congress and it will also be 50 years since the opening of the Second Vatican Council.
The Eucharistic Congress will be hosted by the Archdiocese of Dublin on behalf of the whole Irish Church. The theme of the 2012 Congress is “The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and one another” and pastoral planning and preparations are well under way throughout Ireland.
