PONTIFICAL COMMITTEE
FOR INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESSES

Plenary Assembly
9-11 November 2010

The role of the National Delegates

Fr. Vittore Boccardi sss.

1. National Delegates

1.1. The setting up of delegates and the Statutes of the Committee

The role of the National Delegates is systematically described in different articles of the Statutes of the Pontifical Committee.[1] The history of the setting up of these Delegates is relatively recent. From its beginnings in 1881 the Committee for Eucharistic Congresses instituted a network of local national committees around the whole world. They not only had to work for the spread of the message of the International Congresses and see to the realisation of the Congresses’ wishes (‘voti’), but they also had the task of involving all the faithful in a movement of faith and love for the Holy Eucharist by means of arranging the celebration of local Congresses.

This organisation functioned more or less until the 1950s, when the local Committees began to disappear because of new urgent ecclesial needs, because of the diminishing dynamic strength of the central Committee for Congresses and, not least, because of a weakening of the Eucharistic movement, which constituted the soul of the great enterprise of Congresses.

When the permanent National Committees also disappeared it was necessary to find other forms of collaboration for the pastoral preparation of the International Eucharistic Congresses in the local Churches. The solution was found in the setting up of National Delegates, who became mentioned in the Statutes of the Pontifical Committee which were approved by the Servant of God John Paul II on April 2^nd 1986.

After this date, the Statutes state that the President of the Pontifical Committee requests “the Episcopal Conferences to appoint National Delegates, who would be committed to the preparation of Congresses and when they take place to constitute with the approval and the support of the local ecclesiastical authority National Eucharistic Committees” (n.3/b).

The service that the National Delegates are called to render to the universal Church by means of their concrete commitment in the different local Churches, other than what has been set out in the articles of the Statutes, was well expressed by John Paul II at the audience granted to the Plenary Assembly of November 5^th 2002:

“They are called” – he said – “to make the Churches aware about the theme of the International Congress above all during the period of its preparation, so that it may become a wellspring from which there may flow into the local Churches the fruits of life and communion… International Eucharistic Congresses contribute also to this delightfully ecclesial finality. The participation of the faithful coming from various places to such an Eucharistic event symbolises, in fact, unity and communion.”

He went on to explain: “The National Delegates can take back to their communities the spirit of Eucharistic fervor and communion that is lived at these special moments of adoration, contemplation, reflection and sharing. The Congress, experienced in depth, is a fire that forges animators of living Eucharistic communities and evangelisers of those groups which do not yet know at depth the love that is hidden in the Eucharist.”

He closed his discourse by exhorting them to persevere “with commitment and passion” in this Eucharistic apostolate, “enlivening and spreading Eucharistic devotion in all its expressions.”[2]

1.2. Facing the urgent needs of our time

Naturally all the statutory functions assigned to National Delegates must be related to the urgent needs of the historical circumstances that we experience. Together with these they must find in the theme of the International Eucharistic Congress a driving force to deepen the impact of the Eucharist on the life of the local Churches so that there is realised the scope of “making always better known, loved and served our Lord Jesus Christ in his Eucharistic mystery, the centre of the Church’s life and mission for the salvation of the world” (Statutes, 2).

Gathered here together during these days we have begun the journey of approaching the next Congress of Dublin in 2012 by means of the talks given by Father Legrand, and His Grace Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who have shown from different points of view the mystery of the Eucharist as communion with Christ and with one another.

The frame of reference that this implies puts forward the fascinating interweaving between Eucharist and Church, the Body of Christ and place of ecclesial communion, effectively drawn from the text of Lumen Gentium already resounding in this assembly, “in all legitimate local congregations of the faithful which, united with their pastors, are themselves called churches in the New Testament… by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the mystery of the Lord's Supper is celebrated, ‘so that by the flesh and blood of the Lord they may be closely united in the brotherhood of community’(Mozarabic prayer: PL 96, 759B)… In these communities, though frequently small and poor, or living in the Diaspora, Christ is present, and in virtue of His presence there is brought together one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. For ‘the partaking of the body and blood of Christ does nothing other than make us be transformed into that which we consume’ (St Leo the Great, Serm. 63, 7).”[3]

It is within this frame of reference in which the Eucharist appears as a mystery of Communion with God and with our brethren, that is in the rediscovery of an Eucharistic ecclesiology for the Third Millennium, that the role of the National Delegates can be redesigned and interpreted.

2. A presence to be reinterpreted at a theological level

2.1. The Eucharist at the heart of the Church and the world

The first task pertaining to the Pontifical Committee and also to National Delegates consists in recognising that the Eucharist is at the heart of the Church and the world.

International Eucharistic Congresses have been for almost a century the unique expression of the “itinerant magisterium” of the Church. By means of their celebrations extraordinary crowds have gathered around the Eucharist from across the continents, coming as pilgrims from one continent to another.

Today, this “itinerant magisterium” has grown with the World Youth Day, the day of families, the sick, etc. But more than ever it remains true that Eucharistic Congresses with their renewed physiognomy of the Statio orbis continue to witness to the fact that Eucharist is the source of the Church’s life and the sole summit of every Christian journey.

Most deeply, the events making up the shape of a Eucharistic Congress manifest to an ever more globalised and interconnected world the very heart of the faith: the Risen Christ who involves believers in the dynamic movement of his Pasch and bonds them in a wonderful communion with the Father within a fraternal community. Our commitment as Delegates is thus not marginal, nor secondary.

“In taking the Church back to its Eucharistic fountainhead” – John Paul II stated – “can only give back to it authenticity and vigor, relieving it of less urgent discussions of an organisational kind, and offering it instead those perspectives of consecration to God and fraternal sharing that will permit in time the overcoming even fragmentation and division.”[4]

2.2. The Church founded on the Eucharist

A true Eucharistic piety is that which places at the centre of life the celebration of the divine mysteries within a community of faith where the presence of the Lord is welcomed with thanksgiving, received with faith, adored lovingly. This means fully welcoming the message of the Second Vatican Council, which stated that the Eucharist is “the centre of the Church’s life and its mission for the salvation of the world” (Statutes, 2) and everything that is based on the Council has grown in the life of the Church.

During these last years, the Catholic Church has been enriched by an impressive doctrine regarding the Eucharist. On April 17^th 2003, John Paul II signed the Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (EE), which dealt with the relation between Eucharist and the Church. A little later he inaugurated a year consecrated to the Eucharist (October 2004-October 2005) with his Apostolic Letter Mane nobiscum Domine (MN) of October 7^th 2004.

This special year was begun with the Eucharistic Congress of Guadalajara and ended with the XIth General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist held in Rome from October 3^rd to 23^rd, 2005. Finally, in the Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (SaC), which appeared on March 13^th 2007, Benedict XVI resumed almost entirely the proposals made at the Synod by the Bishops.

Three texts of great importance in four years! There are few examples in the history of the Church of a corpus so consistent within so restricted a time.

The grounds for such an impetus appear in the threads of the structure of SaC. Above all, the deepening of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. This Council dealt extensively with the Eucharist “a source and summit of the whole Christian life” (LG 11) in Lumen Gentium and in Sacrosantum Concilium, but the Church has certainly not finished with exhausting this most rich mine of doctrine.

Secondly, the teaching arises from the breakdown in a Christian culture which does not find places any more for an authentic handing on and the need for a broad and fundamental mystagogical catechesis to bring about an interior participation of the people of God in the Eucharistic mystery (cf. SaC 19).

In the third place, the need to shape a nourishing Eucharistic doctrine that can synthesise the spiritual, theological, catechetical and liturgical elements. The liturgical reform has produced extraordinary fruits in Christian life, but the need remains to recover the sense of the Eucharistic mystery and to live it: “to offer some basic directions aimed at a renewed commitment to Eucharistic enthusiasm and fervor in the Church.” (SaC 5).

In this substantial magisterial corpus is presented a new understanding of Eucharistic life and spirituality.

“Eucharistic spirituality is not just participation in Mass and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. It embraces the whole of life… It is significant that Saint Paul, in the passage of the Letter to the Romans where he invites his hearers to offer the new spiritual worship, also speaks of the need for a change in their way of living and thinking: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rm 12:2)” (SaC 77).

A better understanding of the central place of the Eucharist either in all its aspects (presence, banquet, sacrifice, relationship with the Church, missionary, social, charitable dimensions), or in the richness of the approaches to this mystery (biblical, patristic, liturgical, ecumenical, spiritual, mystical) leads to a greater love and to a more genuine service.

In recovering the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council and the more recent magisterium the happy coincidence of a jubilee Congress (the 50^th) with the 50^th anniversary of the opening of that Council urges us on, whether desired or not, to an epoch-making turn about.

2.3. “Eucharistic piety” and ecclesial communion

Another important task pertaining to Delegates concerns that involving and integrating, in accordance with the Conciliar reform, all the manifestations of Eucharistic worship extra missam which are rooted in popular devotion as well as those associations which in various way are linked to and draw their inspiration from the Eucharist (movements for perpetual adoration, for nocturnal adoration, confraternities of the Blessed Sacrament, etc.).

All these practices of Eucharistic devotion raise questions that are not without relevance. It must be well understood that these must be recommended and encouraged as was rightly indicated in the Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia (n. 10 and above all nn. 47-52) and the Post-synodal document Sacramentum Caritatis. The problem is only to know in what theological form this must be done.

All Eucharistic devotions that have come to us have grown up on the basis of an individualistic Eucharistic theology. So, what remains to be done is how to integrate these spiritually fecund Eucharistic devotions into the perspective of a more general one of Eucharistic ecclesiology oriented to communion and to give them thus new impetus.

All this, perhaps, could be accomplished according to the advice given in a declaration of St Augustine that was even cited in Ecclesia de Eucharistia (n. 40): “If you are his body and his members, your mystery is placed on the Lord’s table; indeed, you receive what is your mystery” (Sermo 272). “The task of a Eucharistic Congress, starting from this affirmation, will also be how to preserve ancient forms of Eucharistic devotion, however, by renewing encouraging them in the spirit of the Conciliar Eucharistic ecclesiology.”[5] From that Eucharistic ecclesiology it is recommended that “the Eucharistic celebration may be truly the centre and the summit of all the various manifestations and forms of piety.”[6] This is why Eucharistic Congresses offer a grace of permanent renewal of the Church’s Eucharistic life.

2.4. The bond between Eucharist and a “new evangelisation”

A task of Eucharistic Congresses consists in making a contribution to the new evangelisation,[7] but according to its proper means. In this sense the programmatic expression “new evangelisation” cannot be designated in any other way, in this case, than mystagogic evangelisation, that is, the evangelisation which is carried out in the Church’s school of prayer, evangelisation beginning from the liturgy and by means of the liturgy.[8]

But every Congress bears in itself also an evangelising breath in a very strictly missionary sense and this was already from the 1920s when, during the pontificate of Pius XI, Eucharistic Congresses involved numerous local Churches from the five continents. From then on, the double name “Eucharist-evangelising mission” entered into being a part of the guidelines established by the Holy See through the Pontifical Committee.[9] The Eucharistic table thus represents the centre from which the ferment of the Gospel is spread; it becomes a driving force for the building up of the human society and pledge of the Kingdom to come.

Congresses introduce the salvific dimension of the Eucharist into the vast reality of the modern world and into the plurality of cultures: “The faithful are invited to be aware that an authentically Eucharistic Church is a missionary Church. In fact, the Eucharist is a font of mission. The Eucharistic gathering… awakens in the disciple the decisive will to proclaim to others with audacity what he/she has heard and lived, to lead them also to the same encounter with Christ. In this way, the disciple, sent by the Church, is opened to a mission without frontiers.”[10]

Thus the preparation and celebration of a Congress must manifest the need that the Eucharist may become an appropriate response to the thirst for truth, for newness and life, that thirst in every person’s heart. And this pertains not only in those countries traditionally the focus of missionary activity, but also to countries long ago evangelised where it is more than ever necessary to bring back to the centre the person of Christ and his Gospel, so that the Church may remain faithful to his mission and continue to be a seed of the future and of life.

Lastly, Eucharistic Congresses can become also the privileged place for a better and more attentive juncture between Eucharist and evangelisation, or, in other words, between the gathering of the Church as a Eucharistic assembly and the mission entrusted to it by Christ himself to proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom. “It is clearly evident that only a people of God which allows itself to be gathered in unity and concord is able to convince the world.”[11]

On the horizon of the Third Millennium, the new evangelisation remains a permanent challenge for Eucharistic Congresses;[12] they help to transform the reception and celebration of the Eucharist into a dynamism of changing the heart and society and in the creation of a culture of brotherhood. The Eucharist is placed at the centre of shaping Christian life and the common task of spreading the Gospel.

3. A presence to be reinterpreted at a pastoral level

Every International Eucharistic Congress constitutes a kind of goal reached after a long preparation, involving all the local Churches, to bring out the centrality of the Eucharist in the Church, since it is the culmination as well as the font. From a Congress lived as a “catholic” experience, many benefits result: lights, fruits, experiences which flow into the local Churches, to enliven the Eucharistic life of the faithful. The role of the National Committees and their Delegates, under the impetus of the Central Committee, consists in gathering and relaunching the fruits of a life coming from the Congress so that the whole Catholic community may be irrigated as if from the river of life of the Lamb.

The National Delegates become, as Father Jesús Castellano Cervera stated in his talk at the Plenary Assembly of November 2002, “the permanent animators of Eucharistic worship in the respective nations and local Churches, maintaining alive the thrust and flame between two Congresses; they are like a vital bridge from one event to another.” And he added: “The Delegates are called to keep alive the flame in a way that the Congresses may not become intense episodic moments, but all considered, transitory, in order that they may have a continuity and a thrust. The Eucharist is a mystery of daily life, it is a light along the historic path of the Church, it is a viaticum of the people of God. The Eucharist will always be the centre of the Church’s life until the day when the Lord comes. In their specific mission and at a universal level they will always keep burning the flame of the presence and expectation of the Lord.”

To realise this scope the National Delegates must pour out with constancy all their theological, pastoral and spiritual resources. Let us here offer some pointers of a practical kind.

3.1. The Eucharist at the centre of pastoral ministry

The devising of a pastoral ministry and a Christian spirituality for our time must be “Eucharistic centered”.

It is possible to draw up a pastoral ministry of the local Church according to a Eucharistic model. It begins from “life as an offering” (such is the essential significance of the Eucharist) and it is based on the principle of brotherhood. This is because there is a need not only to “speak” of brotherhood, even as modernity has done, but also to “translate” it into a lifestyle. On the other hand, this was indeed the distinctive sign of the first Christian communities. Hence, it is concretely in daily life that there is a need to see solidarity witnessed, to feel it lived, to be able to relate it in such a way that “living with others” is linked to “living for others”, and this living for others may become a concrete and habitual responsibility not only for some but for many.

The Eucharistic model is realised in sacrifice. The call for “sacrifice” pertains in the Eucharistic perspective to the passage from “sacrificing” to “sacrificing oneself”, that is, to offering oneself by realising that spiritual worship which is already at the centre of the Pauline vision of the Letter to the Romans (12:1) and which has such a place in the Apostolic Exhortation of Benedict XVI.

As is seen the Eucharistic theme is related to the local Church with a double objective: to rediscover the Word and Bread as a gift of Christ to the Church for daily life, and as well to recognise that by living the Eucharist Christians do not place themselves against the world, but at its service. A Christian life centered on the Eucharist restores in fact to baptised persons their place in society and renders them the leaven of the world.

3.2. The Eucharist, a model for dialogue

To live dialogue in a positive way.

Our interconnected and globalized world is the environment of a positive dialogue of cultures, of sciences and religions, a space in which the eternal Wisdom of God becomes witnessed by the Christ event lived in the Church. Naturally the risk of relativism and syncretism must be avoided by having on the other hand clear that the alternative to meeting between civilisations is the clash of civilisations.

This dialogue can be pursued like ecumenical dialogue in a Christian field or like interreligious dialogue (as Benedict XVI recently stated) understood as a dialogue between believers rather than between religions.

Particularly important for us is the ecumenical dialogue related to the Eucharist. In the Churches long ago evangelised this commitment was always somewhat marginalised either for sociological reasons or for ideological and apologetic reasons. For example, in the first 37 International Eucharistic Congresses themes of ecumenism were not ever broached – except in part and with accents very different from the present at the Congress of Jerusalem in 1893.

Today, however, it is not possible to forget the essential connection between Eucharist and the communion of the Churches. If, in fact, by its very nature the Eucharist manifests and realises the forma ecclesiae, it represents not only the end but also the way and means of attaining visible communion between the Christian Churches.

It is interesting to remember, for instance, that the introduction of the new Eucharistic Prayers in the Roman Missal with their epiclesis of consecration has fostered a theological coming nearer with our Orthodox brethren, so also attention given to the Word of God in Christian worship has led to the now normal presence of representatives of the Reformed Churches at Eucharistic Congresses from the 1970s. In the last years at conferences during the Congresses there have been broached freely problems of ecumenical relations in general, including the problem of intercommunion.

Ecumenical relations began to enter fully into Eucharistic Congresses at Munich in 1960. It was the time in which preparations for the Council had led Blessed John XXIII to set up the Secretariat for the promotion of Christian Unity. From them on in the ecclesial perspective of the Second Vatican Council the movement towards the unity of Christians has become an integral part of the Church’s path and hence also of Eucharistic Congresses, which today accept the great challenge of the Eucharistic ecclesiology, the re-establishing of the correct relationship of Eucharist and Church, which was wonderfully expressed by the Apostle Paul and the ecclesial tradition.

To the ecumenical commitment there has been added in most recent times another area of dialogue – as experienced especially at the Congresses of Bombay (1964) and Seoul (1989) – namely, that of interreligious dialogue in the “spirit of Assisi”: the invitation to praise that springs from faith in one God the Creator, the call to peace as a universal yearning of human beings, and for justice.

The Eucharist helps Christians not to shy away from history and from its problems, but to face reality with strength coming from Christ’s Pasch: “Religious man in front of the hidden dangers of evil is able to count on God, an absolute will for good… to obtain the courage to face difficulties, even the most dire, with personal responsibility, without succumbing to fatalism or impulsive reactions.”[13]

The emphasis on dialogue in a relational manner that arises from the Eucharist has important effects even at a level of evangelisation. “Dialogue and proclamation”[14] is the title of a text of the Pontifical Council for interreligious dialogue, which recalls that evangelisation is not only proclamation, but also dialogue: dialogue, therefore, as a moment or coessential element in the evangelising work, to which the Church is called by divine mandate.

This relational style comes to Christians from the Eucharist. From dialogue, in fact, it offers a model to communicate from that particular form of dialogue that is God’s with humankind, which is the Old and New Covenant, finding its fulfillment properly in the Eucharist, and from man with God which is prayer in its different expressions, personal and communitarian, spontaneous and cultic, all of which are fully realised in the liturgy.

3.3. Eucharist for a city of brotherhood

The Christian community, although it may be differentiated in its interior in ecclesial terms as socio-culturally, when gathered in celebrating the Eucharist, expresses concretely the possibility of joining together pluralism and unity, eschatological longing and historical commitment, a communion of saints and a sense of responsibility for justice.

It is a question of developing the reflection sketched by Benedict XVI in Caritas in Veritate and in Sacramentum Caritatis, in particular where he stated: “A significant consequence of the eschatological tension inserted into the Eucharist is also the fact that it impels us on our historical journey, sowing a seed of lively hope into the daily dedication of each one to his or her own tasks.” So “Christians feel themselves committed not to neglect their duties as earthly citizens. It is their task to contribute in the light of the Gospel to the building up of a world fit for humankind and fully responding to the design of God” (SaC, 20).

We shall be able to call this the Christian Gospel of politics, on which Sacramentum Caritatis (n. 89) insists, emphasising that “this sacramental ‘mysticism' is social in character”, for which “the Eucharist becomes in life what it signifies in its celebration. This means that the Church and Christians should not stay on the sidelines in the struggle for justice. The Church, as such, has to play her part in discussing in the public sphere and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice, which always demands sacrifices, cannot prevail and prosper.”

“Eucharistic men and women,”[15] after having heard the same Word, shared the same Body, drunk from the same chalice, return to the earthly city to follow paths of communion that form the truest tissue of human living.

4. Conclusion

4.1. Between gift and commitment

The message of the next Eucharistic Congress: “Eucharist – communion with Christ and with one another”, could be translated: “Becoming Eucharistic persons who witness in the world to the presence of the Lord and build up a sense of people living in communion.” [This is the sense given in explaining the Congress Logo, entitled People in Communion; the Logo was designed on behalf of the Congress Committee by Martin Barlow of Portadown, Co. Armagh.] This is not only a phrase to create an effect, but it is meant to signify a profound conviction that can constitute, in sum, the “charge” given to prepare the Congress.

This “charge” is an essential aspect so that the Congress not only constitutes an event, a “big event”, but brings about a renewal of mentality that may bear fruit before, during and after the Congress in a series of attitudes bringing Christians to “be a Eucharistic community”, the family of God, a brotherhood enlivened by the Spirit, a communion of persons, a Church of human faces…

In the desert of truth and values through which we are passing, our wearisome “exodus” is supported by a Manna that drives us to changes of mentality, renewal of lifestyle. There is here an enormous call for sharing (i.e., a capacity of understanding and involvement), of conversion (i.e., a capacity for change and co-responsibility), of communion (i.e., a capacity for cooperation and collaboration). But, to respond to these needs it is not enough that our relationships be characterised in a growing measure individualistically and in a stereotyped way.

The Eucharist, indeed, as John Paul II wrote in Ecclesia de Eucharistia, “gives an impulse to our path in history, sowing a seed of lively hope into the daily dedication of each one to his or her own tasks” (n. 20).

4.2. A fruitful heritage

The great Eucharistic movement that was at the origins of Eucharistic Congresses has marked the history of the Church during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with inestimable fruits of holiness and ecclesial growth, which has come down to us today not only and not merely in some surviving associations; neither is it limited to charismatic movements that appeared in the 1970s putting at the centre of their spirituality Eucharistic devotions. Today the Eucharistic vitality already so dynamically expressed by the international Eucharistic movements of a time survives and grows in local Churches, which in the Sunday Eucharist celebrate together the source and summit of their path of communion.

It is at the service of these Christian communities that we are called as National Delegates to offer our commitment of faith and love, of intelligence and culture, of pastoral endeavour and spirituality, so that the work of preparing the faithful for the Eucharistic Congress may urge them to undertake so many worthwhile initiatives, lead to a massive participation at the Irish celebrations of 2012, but above all transform our local Churches into Eucharistic communities when sharing at the Lord’s table constructs bonds of charity and develops all the vital force of the Sacrament.

[1] Cfr Statuto in Pontificio Comitato per i Congressi Eucaristici Internazionali (a cura di), I Congressi Eucaristici, Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2010, pp. 7-19.

[2] AAS, XCV, 203.

[3] LG, 26.

[4] Giovanni Paolo II, Ad sodales Congregationis pro Doctrina Fidei, January 18, 2002, AAS XCIV, pag. 334.

[5] Walter Kasper, L’ecclésiologie eucharistique: du Vaticano II à l’exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis in L’Eucharistie don de Dieu pour la vie du monde. Actes du Symposium international de théologie, Quebec 2009, p. 211.

[6] Rituale De sacra communione et de cultu mysterii eucharistici extra Missam, June 21, 1973, n. 112.

[7] The expression, dear to John Paul II, features in his Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte (n. 40) and is repeated in Ecclesia de Eucharistia al n. 6.

[8] Cfr. Sacramentum Caritatis n. 64. For the meaning of the phrase “mysticagogic evangelization” see: Cesare Giraudo, “In unum corpus”. Trattato mistagogico sull’Eucaristia, Cinesello Balsamo 2001, p. 604.

[9] Statuto, nn. 15 e 19 in: Pontificio Comitato per i Congressi Eucaristici Internazionali, I Congressi Eucaristici. Statuto. Percorso storico. Suggerimenti e proposte, Ed. Libreria Vaticana 2009, p. 15ff.

[10] XI Assemblea generale ordinaria del Sinodo dei Vescovi, Elenco finale delle proposizioni, n. 42; in Synodus Episcoporum Bollettino 22.10.2005.

[11] Gerard Lohfink, Dio ha bisogno della chiesa?, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo 1999, p. 78.

[12] Paul Poupard, The Eucharist and the New Evangelisation: A challenge for Eucharistic Congresses, in The International Eucharistic Congresses for a New Evangelisation, Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1991, pp. 65-85.

[13] Giovanni Paolo II, Assisi, January 24, 2002.

[14] Joint Document of the Pontifical Council for Dialogue and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Roma, May 19, 1991. In OR, June 21, 1991.

[15] Enzo Bianchi, L’Eucaristia e la città, Qiqajon 2002. On the same theme, see the talk given by Dossetti at the Diocesan Eucharistic Congress of Bologna in 1987 (Giuseppe Dossetti, Eucaristia e città, Roma 1997).