For American pilgrims, the Eucharistic Congress was a response to an urgent need

For five days in mid-July, the streets of downtown Indianapolis were painted with the different colors of American Catholicism.

There were Guadalupanos, Latin American “trads” attending Mass, aspiring Catholic influencers, retired baby boomers, cassock-clad seminarians, children from youth groups, charismatics, pro-life activists and, perhaps most strikingly, an army of strollers pushed by couples with young children.

“It’s nothing compared to anything I’ve ever seen before,” said Arianna Rodriguez, 20, who came with a small group from St. Isaac Jogues Church in Orlando, Florida.

Participants young and old, from near and far, made similar observations. It was hard to say when, or even if, such a diverse mix of Catholics had ever gathered on American soil for such an event.

What brought them here?

The National Eucharistic Congress (NEC) took place in a central city known as “the crossroads of America” and was the culmination of a three-year “revival” organized by the American bishops in response to declining faith in and devotion to the Eucharist, the sacrament described by the Second Vatican Council as “the source and summit of the Christian life.”

The liturgies, processions and mini-congresses held in parishes and dioceses as part of the revival were all to lead to this: a two-month national pilgrimage with four separate routes converging in Indianapolis, where the NEC offered a variety of formative, educational and liturgical experiences with something for everyone – all 60,000 of them.

But the greatest attraction of the NEC, many Angelus attendees told us, was not just the excitement of being with so many believers, but also that it tapped into a palpably growing indifference toward faith in today’s world—and even in the church.

“I think a lot of us are lukewarm,” said Emma Taylor of Denver, Colorado. “We don’t know why we’re still Catholic.”

Speaking with Angelus after attending a panel on July 19 about the challenges of Catholic dating sponsored by The Catholic University of America, Taylor said she had her “first real encounter” with the Eucharist at age 16, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament.

“I think our church needs to be renewed, and we all need to accept our wounds and do the healing that we need to do to live the Catholic faith,” Taylor said. “I think that’s what keeps a lot of people from really living it. We’re not willing to forgive, and that’s a critical part of experiencing God’s love.”

Taylor was one of many conference attendees who said they were inspired by the words of the star speaker and podcaster Father Mike Schmitz on the second night of the NEC, telling the thousands in attendance at Lucas Oil Stadium that “you can never have a revival without repentance.”

“If the antidote to ignorance is knowledge, and the road to knowledge is truth, then the antidote to indifference is love, and the road to love is repentance,” said Schmitz, a chaplain at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Despite all the concern about belief in the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, Schmitz said, the deeper problem is that “we know, but we just don’t care.”

Many of those interviewed by Angelus in Indianapolis felt that Schmitz’s speech set the tone for the convention.

“We’re not perfect. We’re sinners just trying to be saints,” said Denise Gomez of Inglewood. “At Mass, we bring our sins to the cross. And we just ask for God’s forgiveness, and we can feel that in his presence.”

Like others who spoke to Angelus, Gomez cited the decision to close churches and limit access to the Eucharist due to the spread of COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic as a source of frustration — and motivation to make the most of opportunities like the convention.

“That was when my faith grew the most, because I didn’t have any other distractions,” Gomez said. “So I really focused on going to Mass every day.”

“Our hunger for the Eucharist grew,” added Elsie Garcia, who along with Gomez teaches catechism to children at St. John Chrysostom Church in Inglewood.

If visitors to Indianapolis were looking for ideas about how to bring the Revival back home, they might have benefited from conversations with people like Moises Espinal and Virgil Chad Burge, two Knights of Columbus from Holy Family Church in Pass Christian, Mississippi, located in the Diocese of Biloxi.

Alarmed by the decline in church attendance following COVID lockdowns, their parish decided to take a more “purposeful” approach to inviting parishioners back.

“We found that what has worked, or paid big dividends, is actually meeting and doing things outside (of the parish),” Espinal said. “Trying to break the mold of more traditional settings to places where people can go and still be vulnerable while discussing the Word.”

To reach men their own age, parishioners like Espinal and Burge have organized meeting places in local cigar bars where men can smoke, “have a few beers and talk about the Word of God.”

Burge, who was himself Protestant and converted at age 32, says he has had success calling parishioners, rather than sending emails or texts, to invite them to parish activities.

Espinal and Burge say Mass attendance in their parish is higher today than it was before COVID.

“It’s the personal connection,” Burge said. “When you personally invite someone to do something, it’s hard to say no.”

The opportunities for personal networking and conversations with people from across the country, Espinal said, are one reason he believes the conference “will produce tremendous results for the diocese and for the church here in the U.S.”

Perhaps more immediate “results” were to be found in the stories of pilgrims like Kjell Yu, who also traveled with the Orlando group. With the start of his studies only a few weeks away, Yu was not “really deep in my faith” and did not want to come to Indianapolis. But by the end of the congress’ closing mass on Sunday, July 21, something had changed.

“Now that I’ve been through this whole journey, it’s really changed my whole perspective, especially my worship — absolutely,” Yu said.

The 18-year-old said he received the sign he was looking for during a moment of evening worship at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kneeling in silence, he directed his prayers to a young man he saw nearby who looked visibly disinterested.

“I thought, ‘God, please help him at least see your love,'” Yu said. Moments later, the man seemed to come to life and began singing during the next song.

“Even something small gave me just that little bit more, just that little bit more reassurance that he is really there and giving us love.”

Overall, the NEC is seen as an overwhelming success by organisers, participants and observers.

Fears of lower-than-expected attendance dissipated as organizers saw a surge in registrations in the final weeks leading up to the convention, and then a new wave of day-pass holders who decided to extend their stay. Some observers compared the “energy” in Lucas Oil Stadium on the streets of Indianapolis during the July 20 Eucharistic Procession to when Pope John Paul II visited Denver for World Youth Day in 1993.

“The energy of this space could change our country,” said Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, during a stirring half-hour catechesis during the final (and largest) evening session of the convention on July 20.

The words of Jesus at the Last Supper: ‘This is my body, specified for you,Barron said he was pointing out an important truth about the Eucharist: “Your Christianity is not for you.”

“Christianity is not a self-help program, something designed just to make us feel better about ourselves,” Barron said. “Your Christianity is for the world.”

At the end of his speech, which focused on what the three evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity and obedience) mean for laypeople, Barron invited the crowd to “bring the light of Christ into the secular world.”

“The great revival will be a failure if we do not change our society, if we do not flow out of this place with the light of Christ.”

In the same spirit, the organizers presented the convention as the beginning of a new missionary phase for Catholicism in the United States, to be followed by similar pilgrimages and conventions.

In his homily at a Spanish Mass on July 20, Archbishop José H. Gomez said the revival should lead the Church in the United States to “a new Eucharistic evangelization.” Later that day, in a talk on Our Lady of Guadalupe as “the Marian heart of America,” the archbishop compared the challenge of evangelizing under daunting circumstances to the mission the Virgin Mary entrusted to St. Juan Diego in 16th-century Mexico.

“When Juan Diego heard her cry, he protested,” he said. In the same way, Catholics can sometimes feel that “we are too small, not powerful enough, not worthy enough to do the work of evangelization.”

“But God does not call us to be perfect, He calls us to be faithful,” Archbishop Gomez added.

Just hours after the event ended on Sunday, several participants took to social media to rave that what they had just witnessed would bear fruit for the American church, similar to the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver, which is largely credited with inspiring a wave of new apostolates, ministries and religious vocations in the country.

It would take years—even generations—to show such results. But at the very least, the Congress undoubtedly left pilgrims with a sense of hope for themselves—and for the Church—that had been lacking.

“I’m excited,” said the 18-year-old Yu as he left the congress’ closing mass on Sunday. “This experience is definitely going to change my life for the better.”