There are now less than 6 months to go to the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, Ireland.
Over the years the global movement of Catholics that once characterized the Eucharistic Congresses has notably shifted toward the World Youth Days, but organizers are hoping to galvanize some of the WYD enthusiasm to help make the June appointment in Dublin an unforgettable event for all attending, and in particular for Ireland.
They are hoping that Catholics worldwide will answer Ireland’s call and come to the island nation, renowned for its welcome, to celebrate the Eucharist in “Communion with Christ and with one another”.
“I would certainly hope that some of the things that we have seen on the streets of places like Sydney or Madrid, that people in Ireland will see Catholics from other countries coming joyfully enthusiastically, enjoying the Congress and finding no conflict in being people of faith and people who enjoy life to the full”, says Fr. Kevin Doran, secretary general of the IEC2012 organizing committee.
He sat down with Emer McCarthy to speak about the program, locations and personalities taking part in the Congress June 10-17th next.
18 international speakers will be delivering key-lectures and leading liturgical celebrations, among them: Br. Alois, Cardinal Rodrigues-Maradiaga of Honduras, Cardinal Vingt-Trois of Paris, Cardinal Turkson of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace, Archbishop Foud Twal of the Latin Patriarchate, Archbishop Tagle of Manila, Archbishop Miller of Vancouver and Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The draft program includes daily liturgies and workshops with a main lecture every evening.
Each day of the week will have a particular focus, from ecumenism and reconciliation to family life.
In fact, in an effort to encourage parents to make it a family experience, there will be special workshops and catechesis sessions for children and teenagers.
Most of these activities will take place in the Royal Dublin Society, RDS, an arena complex located in a leafy suburb just south of the capital and probably most famous for hosting international show-jumping events.
But as Fr. Kevin points out, the purpose of the Congress is twofold: to bring the Irish dimension to the Universal Church and to bring the Universal dimension of the Church onto the streets of Ireland.
20 churches have been allocated for across the Irish capital for liturgies, prayer services and Eucharistic adoration. Many of these will be given over to political language groups, including Vietnamese, Chinese, Italian and Spanish.
Fr. Kevin calls it the “City Congress”, in the hope that Christian pilgrims coming to the Congress from abroad will bring their joy of faith to the streets and people of Dublin and in doing so help rekindle enthusiasm among Irish Catholics who have had to weather grave scandals in the Church in recent years.
“I suppose the last ten years or there has been a loss of confidence”, he says. “While there would be a lot of people who would still believe in Jesus Christ, and while there are a lot of people who still deeply value the ministry of the Church, in the last ten years it was never politically correct to say that out loud”.
Fr. Kevin concludes: “I think the Congress to some extent, is not about trying to rediscover the past or go back to the way we were, it’s about trying to work out what the space for the Church is and what the ministry of the Church will be to evangelize and promote the Gospel and to call people to follow Christ in the Ireland of today and the next century”.
So far, organisers have received bookings from over 33 countries to attend the Congress.
Registration is essential and they urge any groups or individual pilgrims interested in attending to register online by visiting the website www.iec2012.ie