Guadalajara (Fides Service) - The Church in Mexico is living with intensity and devotion its ‘national year of the Eucharist’ as it prepares to host the 48th International Eucharistic Congress 10 to 17 October 2004 in Guadalajara on the theme “Eucharist, Light and Life of the new Millennium”.
The national Year of the Eucharist is one of several initiatives taken by the Mexican Bishops’ Conference in view of the 48th International Eucharistic Congress and to increase awareness of the Mystery of the Eucharist. Another major event immediately before the Congress will be an International Theological Pastoral Symposium to reflect on Pope John Paul II’s encyclical “Ecclesia de Eucharistia” . The Symposium will be held 5-8 October leading to the opening of the Congress. Moderator general del Symposium will be Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of the Sick and Healthcare Workers who is also a member of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.
The Symposium will open on 6 October with a solemn celebration of Mass presided by Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City. The first conference, “An Overall View of the Ecclesia de Eucharistia Encyclical” will be given by Cardinal Marc Quellet, PSS, Archbishop of Quebec (Canada). Later that morning “The sense of faith in the Eucharist on the different continents” will be the focal point of talks given by experts and Cardinals from all 5 continents: Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana; Cardinal Bernard Law, emeritus Archbishop of Boston, USA, Cardinal Carmelo D.F. Morelos, Archbishop of Zamboanga, Philippines; Cardinal Carlos Amigo Vallejo, Archbishop of Seville, Spain, Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia. This will be followed by a conference by Jesùs Castellanos Cervera OCD, Vice president of the Teresianum Institute of Spirituality in Rome on the theme “The Eucharist builds the Church”. In the afternoon participants will exchange ideas and opinions.
On Thursday 7 October the Concelebrated Mass will be presided by Cardinal Andrys Juozas Backis, Archbishop of Vilnius, Lithuania. Conferences on that day will focus on: “The Eucharist, Mystery of Faith” by Card. Angelo Scola, Patriarch of Venice, Italy; “The Apostolic nature of the Eucharist and the Church ” Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Bishop of Regensburg, Germany; “Eucharist and Ecclesial Communion” Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Unity among Christians.
On Friday 8, the concelebrated Mass will be presided by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid, Spain, followed by the closing conferences: “Nobility in the Eucharistic Celebration” by Bishop Victor Sánchez, Auxiliary of Mexico City Archdiocese and “At the School of Mary, Woman of the Eucharist ” by Father Stefano de Fiores SMM, Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The Symposium will close with a panel discussion. (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 14/6/2004)