The Eucharist is exposed for adoration at the 51st International Eucharistic Congress. The next one will take place in 2020 in Budapest, Hungary. (Vatican Radio)
Hungary Ready to Host Next IEC
The Eucharist is exposed for adoration at the 51st International Eucharistic Congress. The next one will take place in 2020 in Budapest, Hungary. (Vatican Radio)
The Pope made the announcement in a taped video shown to hundreds of thousands of people gathered for the closing Mass of the IEC at the city’s South Road Properties.
“I am happy to announce that the next International Eucharistic Congress will take place in 2020 in Budapest, Hungary,” Pope Francis said, erupting a thunderous applause from the hundreds of thousands of people attending the Mass.
Some participants from the future host nation were also seen waving flags with joy.
Like the Philippines, this will also be also second time that Hungary will be hosting the IEC after 82 years.
In 1938, the 34th IEC was held in Budapest, Hungary, just a year after it was held in Manila in 1937.
Moments after Pope Francis made the announcement, Hungary’s Catholic Church made it clear that it was looking forward to preparing for the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress in 2020.
The Congress will be held 30 years after Hungary held its first democratic elections since World War Two. Those elections meant the end of decades of Communist rule, when many church leaders and other believers faced persecution.
“FULL OF ENERGY”
Hungarian Catholic Cardinal Péter Erdő made clear however that he wanted to make sure the 52nd Congress in Budapest “would introduce” the importance of the Eucharist, not only to Church members, “but to the whole civilian world”.
Erdő, who led the Hungarian delegation during this year’s Congress in Cebu, Philippines, said a special theological committee would be formed to prepare for the event.
The Cardinal made clear that this was “a very serious pastoral” preparation time.
“You have to organize [the International Eucharistic Congress] full of energy,” he said in published remarks.
It is hoped that a pilgrim group from Cebu will also participate in the IEC in Hungary, a country deeply scared by the long period of Communist regime.
The IEC aims to promote an awareness of the central place of the Eucharist in the life and mission of the Church and draw attention to the social dimension of the Eucharist.
There’s no specific date yet for the IEC in Budapest but normally the event lasts for eight days. It opens on a Sunday and ends on the following Sunday. (Roy Lagarde – CBCPNews | Vatican Radio)
No Comments