VATICAN CITY (Zenit.org): Pope Benedict XVI has approved the date and theme for the next International Eucharistic Congress, to focus on the Eucharist as communion with Christ and with one another.
The Vatican press office reported on September 22 that the Pope approved the theme for the conference which will be held in Dublin, Ireland, from June 10-17, 2012.
A communiqué explained that the theme was inspired in No. 7 of Lumen Gentium: “Really partaking of the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with Him and with one another.
‘Because the bread is one, we though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread’ (1 Corinthians 10:17). In this way all of us are made members of His Body, (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:27) ‘but severally members one of another’ (Romans 12:5).”
This 50th Eucharistic congress will be held on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, which, according to Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, was “a moment of renewal and further reflection on the teaching of the Church and of her self-understanding as Body of Christ and People of God”.
