EUCHARISTIC CONGRESSES. - Eucharistic congresses are gatherings of the clergy and the Christian people, for the purpose of publicly glorifying the Most Blessed Sacrament, calling the faithful back to their eucharistic duties, and thus cooperating effectively in the spread of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the world. Eucharistic congresses are: international, national, regional, interdiocesan, diocesan, interparochial, parochial, etc., according to the more or less broad scope of their celebration. They consist of a cultural part dedicated to the study of the congress theme, and of liturgical ceremonies and prayer meetings.
The idea of promoting eucharistic congresses is due to Marie-Marthe Émilie Tamisier, born in Tours, in France, on 1 November 1844 and there died in holiness on 20 June 1910. Formed in the school of Blessed Peter Julian Eymard, she set out to strive with all her strength to promote the salvation of society through the Eucharist. Following the example of pilgrimages to Marian shrines, Tamisier thought that pilgrimages should be organized directed to the shrines sacred to the memory of miracles of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The idea was seconded by priests and laypeople of great virtue. The destination of the first pilgrimage was, in 1874, the chapel known as that of the Gray Penitents, in Avignon. The outcome led to others being organized, often accompanied by a gathering called a "Congress of the Most Blessed Sacrament," in which eucharistic works were discussed.
The pilgrimage of Faverney, in 1878, concluded by a small study congress of notable practical interest, foreshadowed an even vaster and more intense eucharistic action. By now the true and proper eucharistic congresses were dawning.
On 17 January 1881, in Paris, at a meeting presided over by Msgr. de Ségur, the founding of the Work of International Eucharistic Congresses was decided: Lille was the seat of the first. Its principal organizer was Philibert Vrau, the animator of Catholic Works in northern France. He went to Rome to obtain the approval of Pope Leo XIII. The latter granted it with a laudatory brief of 16 May 1881 and willed that his blessing be brought to the assembly of Lille.
The international eucharistic congresses celebrated thus far number 34: 1st Lille (1881), 2nd Avignon (1882), 3rd Liège (1883), 4th Fribourg (1885), 5th Toulouse (1886), 6th Paris (1888), 7th Antwerp (1890), 8th Jerusalem (1893), 9th Reims (1894), 10th Paray-le-Monial (1897), 11th Brussels (1898), 12th Lourdes (1899), 13th Angers (1901), 14th Namur (1902), 15th Angoulême (1905), 16th Rome (1905), 17th Tournai (1906), 18th Metz (1907), 19th London (1908), 20th Cologne (1909), 21st Montreal (1910), 22nd Madrid (1911), 23rd Vienna (1912), 24th Malta (1913), 25th Lourdes (1914). The series, interrupted because of the world war, was resumed with the 26th in Rome (1922), 27th Amsterdam (1924), 28th Chicago (1926), 29th Sydney (1928), 30th Carthage (1930), 31st Dublin (1932), 32nd Buenos Aires (1934), 33rd Manila (1937), 34th Budapest (1938). Because of the second world conflict the celebration of the 35th, which it was intended to hold in Nice, was suspended.
The Supreme Pontiff, usually, after 1893 presides over the proceedings of the eucharistic congresses in the person of a legate a latere, surrounded by cardinals, archbishops, bishops and thousands of priests. The congressists flock in pilgrimage from all Catholic nations to attend the sessions and those liturgical functions and processions which are celebrated during the congress to foster the piety and ardor of those assembled. To say nothing of others, it suffices to recall the success of the last international eucharistic congresses, especially those of Buenos Aires and Budapest, presided over by the then Card. Pacelli, as legate of Pius XI.
The complex work of organization is entrusted to an executive committee constituted in the city hosting the eucharistic congress. It takes its general directives from the International Committee for Eucharistic Congresses, but carries out the particular program of the organization itself according to its own initiatives, by means of various commissions respectively charged with: spiritual preparation, propaganda and the press, transport and lodging, etc. It extends its network in all Catholic countries, through the cooperation of the episcopate and the activity of the permanent national Committees. These promote the participation of the congressists of their respective nation, organize the national sections of the congress, and zealously foster the spiritual participation of their own nation in the congress itself.
The duration of the eucharistic congress is, normally, five days. In Italy, only ten years after the Congress of Lille, the Work of Eucharistic Congresses took firm root, encouraged and blessed, in this country too, by Leo XIII. The following national eucharistic congresses have been celebrated thus far: 1st Naples (1891), 2nd Turin (1894), 3rd Milan (1895), 4th Orvieto (1896), 5th Venice (1897), 6th Bergamo (1920), 7th Genoa (1923), 8th Palermo (1924), 9th Bologna (1927), 10th Loreto (1930), 11th Teramo (1935), 12th Tripoli (1937). The 13th, which was already being prepared in Pompei, was suspended because of the second world war.
As can be seen, between the 5th and the 6th a full 23 years intervened. The cause was the lack of a stable national organization that might be the driving center of the movement. But almost as if to compensate for this deficiency, congresses of a local character began to be celebrated in various places, urged on by the religious awakening due to the reforms of Pius X, and by the numerous meetings of the clergy, promoted in ever greater numbers by the Work of Adorer Priests, which, instituted in France by Blessed Eymard, spread also in Italy.
It was precisely on the occasion of the First National Congress of Adorer Priests, held in Rome in 1913, that the Italian Permanent Committee of Eucharistic Congresses was constituted, whose first president was Msgr. Antonio Padovani, auxiliary bishop of Cremona, who compiled its first statute approved by the Holy See in February 1914. This committee has its general secretary in Rome, at the general house of the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament, to which it is entrusted. The diocesan delegates for the Eucharistic Works, appointed by the committee on the proposal of the bishops, are the connecting organ between the committee itself and the dioceses. - See plate XVII.
Bibliography17 works
For the national ones: The First National Eucharistic Congress in Naples, Naples 1891; Proceedings of the Eucharistic Congress of Turin, Turin 1895; Eucharistic Congress of Orvieto, Orvieto 1896; Eucharistic Congress of Venice, Venice 1897; Sixth National Eucharistic Congress in Bergamo, Bergamo 1920; Proceedings of the Seventh National Eucharistic Congress of Genoa, Genoa 1923; Proceedings of the Eighth National Eucharistic Congress of Palermo, Palermo 1925; Proceedings of the Tenth National Eucharistic Congress of Loreto, Recanati 1930; The Eucharistic Congress of Tripoli, Tripoli 1937; Proceedings of the Eleventh National Eucharistic Congress in Teramo, Teramo 1938.
Bartolomeo Spini