VATICAN CITY (CNS): Celebrating Mass in a packed St Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II closed the 47th International Eucharistic Congress on June 25 with a strong call for missionary action throughout the Christian world.
The Pope, touching on a recurrent theme of the June 18-25 congress, said there was a direct link between the Eucharist and the Christian task of announcing the Gospel to all people.
“We leave this encounter re-invigorated in our apostolic and missionary commitment,” he told about 100,000 people who attended the closing liturgy.
“From this square we want to repeat to the men and women of the third millennium that extraordinary announcement: The Son of God was made man for us and offered himself in sacrifice for our salvation,” he said.
“He gives us his body and blood as the food of a new life, a divine life no longer subject to death,” the Pope said.
The pontiff underlined the importance of the week-long Jubilee eucharistic congress by personally presiding over several of its events, including an opening prayer service and a eucharistic procession through the streets of Rome.
