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Eucharistic Congress: Will there Be Revival?

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Above: the Cataldo Pilgrimage.

Back in July, during a large gathering of Catholics in Indianapolis, I was on a three day, strenuous pilgrimage. I admit that I walked this pilgrimage with people who attend the SSPX, the FSSP and the CMRIs. You know the kind: those who will attend any Latin Mass that they can get to. To these Catholics, the National Eucharistic Congress in the Midwest was one of the greatest non-events hosted by the modern Church. Not a word was spoken about it.

The Cataldo Pilgrimage (2024)

The focus of the pilgrimage was on the sufferings and sacrifice of the early Church martyrs. The theme was used to encourage an acceptance or rather a love of suffering. Our Lord was constantly referred to as the King of the Martyrs, a Man of sorrow who desires consolation today as He did in the Garden of Olives. The pilgrims united their sufferings with Him as they vigilantly put one sore foot in front of the other over 50 miles singing “Faith of Our Fathers” at the top of their gasping lungs. This was along the route of the pioneer Jesuit fathers who once traveled this distance to minister to the ever growing number of Indian converts.

On the last day of our pilgrimage, after a Solemn High Mass on Sunday, the Blessed Sacrament was brought from the parish to the pilgrimage destination. The hype surrounding the arrival of the King of Martyrs was greatly felt. Father arrived at the old mission and all the pilgrims silenced their excited chatter and reverently fell to their aching knees to worship the Lord who had honored them with His presence. It was not long. He only stayed for about 15 minutes before  He was returned to His earthly home, the Tabernacle. There was no light show, no concert music, there was barely 500 people to adore Him, but those who were there, I believe, adored with a childlike genuine fervor.

Things like Congresses and World Youth Day are events that are over publicized and over funded to make Catholics feel like they are a part of something exciting, new and big. These terms and words do not even have a Catholic ring to them. Words like “pilgrimages” and “retreats” are not even part of a modern Catholic’s vocabulary. It seems like they want a faith that stirs them incessantly and they are not satisfied with the many “barren” spiritual moments that are spent in this valley of tears.

There has been a lot of talk in the modern Catholic world of “Eucharistic revival.” They use the word revival as if there has not been an alarm sounded since the 50s that something is seriously wrong with the modern Church. Traditional Catholics are the guardians of revival and they have been actively part of a counter revolution for years.

What are they reviving anyway? In the not too distant past, a brave nun had the courage to stand on camera and say to the largest known Catholic media outlet at the time: “I do not like your Church. You have nothing to offer.” Mother Angelica hit the nail on the head. They have nothing to offer; therefore, they have nothing to revive. They try so hard and they go through so much effort to make sure that the entire world takes notice but they always miss the mark. What the new Church is trying to revive was dead on arrival.

There was a study done that was reported in the Latin Mass Magazine that although millions of young people are showing up to events like World Youth Day and enjoying the concerts and the pomp being displayed, they fail to return home and fill pews at the Novus Ordo.[1] The chaplain on our pilgrimage mentioned that the reason that the new Church has few vocations is that the children are never told to “offer it up” as Our Lady of Fatima asked the three shepherd children. Modern Catholics avoid suffering, pain and inconvenience at all cost. Despite what everyone is pretending, all those clergymen who attended the Congress had to hasten home to serve their 3+ parishes. Not out of an overabundance of converts, as was the case with the missionaries 400 years ago, but due to a shortage of vocations.

I realized a trend that every Congress follows a tragedy in a nation where Catholics need to be reminded what they believe. The first Congress was held in France after the French Revolution. In 1935 a Congress was held in Cleveland, Ohio after the United States emerged out of the Great Depression and while Europe was plunging into the Second World War. At this event the voice of Pope Pius XI, while giving his blessing over the radio, asked the 150,000 Catholics to “pray that the burden be lightened for a world worn to exhaustion.”

Now, considering that Congresses follow a tragedy, did the 2024 Eucharistic Congress admit that the Second Vatican Council was at least the occasion for a tragedy in the Church? Even Traditional Catholics would have gladly attended that event. Because if the organizers didn’t recognize the problem, they are refusing to admit that they need to be reminded what Catholics used to believe.

At the most recent Congress, Traditional Catholics were left not knowing how to participate as the Church showed her division more than ever. Some of us hosted our own Congress which boasted about 1000 people. Did this give the Modernists undue attention? Would it have been better to completely ignore them and continue proving that the old ways of the Church are alive, well and flourishing? We certainly don’t need anything exteriorly exciting about our Faith. We do not need a priest dancing and singing on a stage or the comfortable feeling of being surrounded by people so that we can “worship in fraternity.” We get a much deeper love and understanding out of things like uniting our pains and sufferings to Our Lord and hope that one day we will have one ounce of the bravery the early Church martyrs had.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once remarked that the Church is always coming out of a tomb. That is something that our modern Catholic counterparts don’t seem to realize, or they just wish was not true. They are always celebrating like it’s Easter Sunday. Their lingo is New Springtime and Revival with Resurrexifixes. Their God is a clean smiling merciful Lord.

This is what separates us. Traditional Catholics grieve with the Church as if she were in her agony. Our lingo is “Penance,” “Keep the Faith,” “Offer it up.” Our God is a bloody sacrifice, a complete and perfect offering made to satisfy for our sins so that we may be happy with Him forever in heaven.

There is a tragedy in the Church. The modern Catholic Church needs to recognize the problem. They need to get over themselves and wake up. They need to have the humility to see that their Church is dying. They need to have the bravery to admit what caused it. They need to have the strength to turn back to the Faith of their fathers. And we need to happily welcome their return to tradition with decorum and poise.


[1] “The Mass has Faded. Participation in Religious Rites in Italy from 1993 to 2019” (Rubbettino Publishing House) authored by Professor Luca Diotallevi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Roma Tre as reported by Allesandro Zangrando in The Latin Mass (Summer 2024: vol. 33, no. 2).

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