Print Issue: June 6, 2002

Congress Strengthens Diverse Archdiocese In Eucharistic Faith

Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo (Photo by Michael Alexander)

By Rebecca Rakoczy and Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writers

COLLEGE PARK - It was a feast of the body and blood of Christ, but also a feast of the senses, as thousands came early and stayed through the day to celebrate, pray, sing and rejoice in their faith during the Eucharistic Congress on June 1.

Held for the second year at the Georgia International Convention Center in College Park, the congress drew participants from Blue Ridge to Columbus - as well as out of state - to hear prelates from the Vatican and a national slate of speakers who focused on their Catholicism and the Eucharist.

Many of those attending came on word of mouth from the success of last year's "Come To Me" event; others came to continue their family's tradition of publicly celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi, which is now a seven-year tradition in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

"I heard lots of good things last year. It seemed to strengthen a lot of people's faith and I was anxious to come," said Ed Vanhaute of St. Joseph's Church, Marietta. Vanhaute and his wife, Danielle, brought their 9-month-old daughter Madeline as they came to the general track to listen to Scott Hahn as well as other speakers.

The Vanhautes were among an estimated throng of 7,000 to 10,000 people who came to the convention center to celebrate the day.

Before dawn, a steady stream of cars and buses began unloading participants and volunteers who geared up immediately for the daylong event. Volunteers, in their distinctive maroon shirts, were treated to a 5 a.m. country breakfast; most would be on their feet for the next 12 hours without much of a break.

"We believe in declaring ceaselessly to the world our belief in His true presence," Archbishop Donoghue told the volunteers at a Mass celebrated prior to a training session the night before.

"From the time I first came to Atlanta it was my dream to fill people with love for our Lord in the Eucharist. Your response, your assistance has made this dream come true. I thank God for the assistance He has given me through the faithful people of this archdiocese."

Archbishop John F. Donoghue thanked all that participated in the seventh annual Eucharistic Congress, and asked those gathered at the closing Mass to seek out the unchurched in the upcoming year, to help them know Jesus Christ. (Photo by Michael Alexander)

Banner carriers from parishes and archdiocesan ministries representing a wide range of ethnic diversity - from Korean, to Vietnamese, to Hispanic - assembled at 7 a.m. as the warm sun began to rise in the sky. The sun brought soaring temperatures but clear weather. Girls in their white Communion dresses scurried about, finding their places in the procession line. Inside, Mary Welch Rogers, Rick Reed and musicians sang praise and worship songs, with the lyrics of last year's refrain, "Come To Me," displayed on the giant video screens in the general session hall.

Many ethnic communities in the Archdiocese of Atlanta were represented during the procession for the Eucharistic Congress. Members of the Vietnamese community at Holy Cross, Atlanta, wore traditional costumes while carrying their banner. The Vietnamese community also carried on a separate track during the Congress. (Photo by Ken Melvin/Archdiocese of Atlanta.)

At the center of the celebration and day's focus was the monstrance displaying the Blessed Sacrament, the body of Christ. It was brought out of the perpetual adoration chapel in the convention center in the early morning hours by Cardinal Jozef Tomko, the president of the Pontifical Commission for International Eucharistic Congresses. Holding the monstrance under a canopy supported by four deacons, Cardinal Tomko followed a procession of over 75 banners into a standing-room-only hall, where a projected image of stained glass windows framed a crucifix behind a long altar.

As the procession began, dozens of archdiocesan priests and deacons entered the hall and a spontaneous wave of applause broke out at the back and continued row by row as the priests processed to the front. They were followed by hundreds of people with banners who joined the throng in the main hall.

Holding his church's banner, Dominic Saltaformaggio had arrived at 5:30 a.m. at St. Benedict's Church in Duluth to board a bus that would bring him and other members of St. Benedict's to the early morning procession. He estimated that between 45-50 members of his parish had joined him for the early morning ride.

Cindy Kirk arrived early from Woodstock; she had attended last year's event and was eager to experience another congress, she said. She estimated that more than 700 members of her parish, St. Michael the Archangel, made the trek to the convention center for the event.

"This is making a visible witness of our beliefs in the Lord and his real presence in the Eucharist," said Kirk. "This congress is like a stone being tossed into the water . . . and we are the ripples going out."

Marco Velazco and his wife, Beda, had only been in this country four mouths from their native Venezuela, but had heard about the event through their parish, Transfiguration in Marietta. The couple has been active in DeColores, and saw the congress as a way to continue their spiritual life in the archdiocese. They attended the Hispanic track.

Olga Rodriguez, Hispanic ministry coordinator at St. Michael's Church, Gainesville, said about 200 Hispanics came together from that parish in a bus and cars.

"We are a big Hispanic community of around 10,000 people in Gainesville and we like everything related to God," she said. The group held aloft a series of five striking banners, including an oil painting of St. Therese of Lisieux with the inscription "Coro Santa Teresa."

People from Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta, and the parish school clustered under two distinctive stained-glass banners made by third-grade teacher Susan Cartwright. Gretchen Karst, a certified nurse anesthetist, came from IHM both to volunteer in first aid and to deepen her faith. "I do try to consistently go to Mass every week. I would not say I have a real involvement in the church," she said, while looking forward to the day touching her.

Russ Spencer, news anchor at Fox 5 and the day's emcee, said when the Corpus Christi festivals began in 1996 there were 1,000 people and now there are "some 10,000 living tabernacles" at the congress. "I have been drawn by the Lord to attend daily Mass and it has been a life-changing event for me," he said.

With the shofar, the traditional ram's horn of our Jewish forefathers, blaring the beginning of the celebration, the day's events began with exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and a homily by Cardinal Tomko.

People obviously gathered on the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the body and blood of Christ, to strengthen their faith in the Eucharist, he said, but "do we perceive in depth what the holy Eucharist is?"

"The Eucharist is not some-thing. The Eucharist is some-body present among us. It is a Person," he said, with emphatic excitement, as the audience applauded.

"It is a Person, and what a Person! The Eucharist is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became man and became bread for our lives . . . Jesus Christ is truly present in our midst. He is here with us in a very special way under the sacramental form of the bread."

Reflecting on three Scripture passages, he recalled that when Jesus performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes and then revealed himself as the "living bread" whose flesh and blood would be real food and drink, many of those who heard him were scandalized and left. But it was at that decisive moment that the apostle Peter made his profession of faith and said, "Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of everlasting life."

"Today, like Peter, we renew our faith," the cardinal said, faith in the incarnation of Jesus Christ as God and man and faith in his real presence "in our midst" under the appearance of the eucharistic host.

Next, recalling the Last Supper, and St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians, Cardinal Tomko said Jesus "left us a memorial" in the Mass, just as one who loves another always leaves a lasting reminder. "He left himself in a state of sacrifice; he wanted this sacrificial event to be renewed sacramentally. It is not a monument, but a commemorative act that makes present that act of Jesus on the cross."

This is further supported in Scripture, he said, as "Paul, a few years later, described to the Corinthians the same celebration we have today" in the Mass.

"Imagine, after 2,000 years, here we have the tradition that comes to us from Jesus directly . . . It is very moving that today, after two millennium, we do exactly the same thing as the apostles."

Finally, drawing a parallel between the American Catholic experience of today and the discouraged disciples walking along the road to Emmaus, he said, "Our continent, with its consumerist abundance, seems sometimes tired and disheartened in faith. We have not refused the faith, but we have not witnessed to it because such a sacrifice costs us. We have not the courage to offer our faith to others. We are ashamed."

Like the disciples at Emmaus who recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, "we are all called to meet personally the risen Lord" in the Eucharist, he said. And, like the disciples at Emmaus, after being fed at the table of the Eucharist, modern Catholic Christians have to get up and return to their homes and workplaces and witness to what they have experienced.

"Missionary activity revitalizes the church. Faith is strengthened when it is given to others as John Paul affirms," the cardinal said. "The Eucharist leads us, inspires us, awakens an interior dynamism of sharing, especially the spiritual gifts of faith, of joy, of love."

The cardinal concluded, praying that "the church living in this archdiocese and on this continent may find herself strengthened for the new evangelization for which the world has need-in the Eucharist . . . and through the Eucharist. Amen."

The homily, which was followed by Archbishop Donoghue's renewal of the commitment of the archdiocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, led into the day's speakers, as people of all ages and nationalities dispersed to tracks for various ages and languages.

"To me, coming here today is part of the greater community of the church," said Lester Chin, 71, a Jamaican of Chinese descent. "I want to experience (this) with the total community of my church. We are part of something bigger. It is good to touch it, to have the cardinal from Rome to talk to us. I love to hear the music. It is building on something. I hope it gets bigger and bigger and bigger."

If the sacrament of the Eucharist was the central focus of the day, the sacrament of holy orders was closely connected. From the warm applause that greeted their entrance, to a litany of prayer, to the buttons proclaiming "God Bless Our Priests," to the standing ovation they received, the priests of the archdiocese were obviously close to the hearts of those present.

Among the items everyone left with was a prayer card with the name of one archdiocesan priest for whom to pray daily over the coming year. There were 100 cards printed for each of the priests serving in the archdiocese, hopefully giving each one 100 prayer-supporters.

In midday, people queued up in long lines to receive the sacrament of reconciliation during a lunch break. As the various tracks concluded around 5 p.m., people bustled to gather in the main hall for the vigil Mass for Corpus Christi celebrated by Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo.

"All the hard work, all the planning the whole year, this is what it's all about," said steering committee member Mary Elkins. "Watching us come together as a Catholic community for the festival of Corpus Christi. I am proud to be a part of it."

In his homily, Archbishop Montalvo, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, touched upon the generous love that Christ expresses in the Eucharist and the unity that is brought about in this profound sacrament.

"It is Christ in the Eucharist who continually makes the church one," he said. "We truly become one body, the body of Christ."

But the gift of the Eucharist is also a gift of Christ's love. "We enter along the path of love. Thanks to the Eucharist, the love that springs up within us grows deeper and stronger," he said, offering us "fortitude and direction as we enter the third millennium."

Pope John Paul II has said that for this new millennium many things are needed, the archbishop said, but "without charity all will be in vain."

"May we continue to be drawn into the life of the Trinity," he concluded, "offering our brothers and sisters a life poured out in self-giving service."

Deacon Lloyd Sutter, a member of the steering committee, said that in a time when the Catholic Church is criticized there were two affirming messages.

"On Saturday, we just got back to the basics - the Eucharist, which, as Cardinal Tomko said, is the source and summit of our faith," he said. "I think the second message was 'no priest, no Eucharist.' They don't have to be perfect. That's not to justify what a handful of (priests) have done - all of those things are horrible, but 99.5 percent of these guys haven't done anything. I think the support for them was, in effect, a great big thank you."

Priests from around the archdiocese gather on both sides of the altar during the closing liturgy of the 2002 Eucharistic Congress. (Photo by Michael Alexander)

The enthusiasm of the crowds was appreciated by Archbishop Donoghue, who saw how the day energized everyone about the Eucharist.

The archbishop started the archdiocese's perpetual adoration devotion in 1994 and began a Eucharistic Renewal in the archdiocese in 1996; this was his seventh celebration of the Eucharistic Renewal in Atlanta.

"I was tremendously delighted and pleased with how smoothly everything went this year," he said. "I heard nothing but positive comments from everybody. It's a wonderful celebration for the whole archdiocese and a way to energize people and get them fired up about what the church is all about. The main source of our spiritual life is the Eucharist, it is the source and the summit of that life; and this is a way to promote devotion. I hope we can do it again next year."