Sydney hopeful for 2028 Eucharistic Congress

If Sydney’s bid for the 2028 International Eucharistic Congress is successful, it would “revitalise the church in Australia in the same way World Youth Day did in 2008,” according to Archdiocese of Sydney Director of Chancery Projects Kathy Campbell.

Mrs Campbell, with Auxiliary Bishop Richard Umbers, flew out of Sydney on Saturday 31 August to attend this year’s Eucharistic congress in Quito, Ecuador, where 40 other pilgrims from Sydney will join them in the coming week.

A group of 30 led by Bishop Daniel Meagher will fly via Mexico and visit the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, before rejoining the rest of the delegation in Quito ahead of the congress on 8 September.

The group will observe the congress to help inform Sydney’s efforts, should the archdiocese win the 2028 bid.

Their approach is similar to that of Cardinal George Pell, who led a group of 25 people to experience World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005, which assisted Sydney’s planning for its own event three years later.

Should Sydney win the bid, the congress would coincide with 20 years since World Youth Day and a century since the city last hosted an International Eucharistic Congress, in 1928.

“We want people to come back to practicing their faith, to develop a real belief in the real presence and to give people the experience of seeing Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,” Campbell said.

“Two decades on from World Youth Day, we need another revitalisation. My hope is that all the dioceses of Australia and New Zealand, the Asia Pacific, would reap the benefits of this—should we win the bid.”

Bishop Umbers, who is the congress delegate for both the Australian and New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conferences, called on the church’s communications officers and media to get behind the IEC bid and promote a Eucharistic culture in their own dioceses.

In a keynote address last Wednesday at the Australian Catholic Communications Congress he outlined the “snowball effect” of popular piety in Sydney in recent years, highlighting increased rates of Eucharistic adoration, the growing Corpus Christi and Fatima processions, and the men’s Camino of St Joseph.

“The idea then that we might have an IEC for Australia and the Asia-Pacific, held in Sydney, is an opportunity to really build on what has already taken place and give greater public witness,” Bishop Umbers said.

“There’s a real hunger for these things.”

The bishop stressed that hosting the IEC would bring Australian Catholics together to share stories of faith and hope, for the renewal of the church.

He pointed to the Eucharistic origin of the Catholic people of Sydney, who, after the expulsion of Fr Jeremiah O’Flynn in 1818, gathered in the Rocks to pray before a single consecrated host left behind by the rebellious priest.

“Every city has its own origin. We can draw attention to and bring that to pilgrimage in a very physical way,” Bishop Umbers said.

“Anyone can join and many do. Everyone feels they can follow Jesus.”

The winner of the 2028 IEC bid will be announced in Quito next week.