Cozzens: 2029 Eucharistic Congress is ‘going to be bigger and better’
Description
Sixty five thousand people gathered last summer in Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress — the culmination of the Church’s three-year National Eucharistic Revival.
Leaders heralded it a roaring success.
But the bishop who organized the Eucharist Congress said that the next one, set for summer 2029, will be “bigger and better” than the Church’s 2024 gathering.
On Wednesday, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, USCCB chairman of evangelization and catechesis, will present to the U.S. bishops’ conference plans for the next Eucharistic Congress.
Cozzens sat down with The Pillar to discuss the Eucharist Revival, what worked at the 2024 Eucharistic Congress, and what will change in 2029.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Bishop Cozzens, what made the first Eucharistic Congress so successful?
The Holy Spirit!
It was the Holy Spirit and it was the decision that we made to really focus on the Eucharist and make it not a conference, but a congress.
A conference is a great thing. You have speakers, you have workshops, and we had those things.
But the Congress was really focused on the Eucharist and drawing people to the Eucharist. Our model was this: If we hold up Jesus, He’s going to draw all people to Himself. So that’s exactly where we started.
We just brought in the Lord and let people experience the Lord, let the Lord work and let this be an act of liturgical worship throughout the week, and so it became more than just a conference.
So, I think the Lord really blessed us for that, and it blessed many, many people who came.
We had healings, we had conversions. I know two priests who were planning to leave the priesthood and they decided not to walk away after experiencing the Congress.
There’s a lot of spiritual fruit from the Congress because we put the Lord at the center.
Even though we are still years away, what will be different about the 2029 Eucharistic Congress?
Well, it’s going to be bigger and better!
How will it be bigger and better?
We have a track record now, so we know how to do it. And we have opportunities to actually reach more people because we know how to do that. We will continue to collaborate with the USCCB. We haven’t decided on a theme but we’ll have a new theme that we’ll roll out eventually.
The number one thing I hear from people is, “Oh, I wish I had gone.”
And so I think that it’s going to be bigger and better in that sense — we think more people will come.
What were some of the lessons that you learned from 2024?
We learned a lot of things. Some of them are just administrative lessons, like “don’t announce the city too early,” because as soon as you announce the city, you lose all your bargaining power with the city.
So we’re checking out three cities and we’re working with three different cities before we make our final decision, and we won’t announce the city as we do the vote here.
The other thing I think we learned is that we want this to be as much as possible a grassroots experience. And so we have to keep finding ways to get to the grassroots for people — we also realized that it’s a very powerful thing to motivate Catholics.
There was once a tradition of holding a Eucharistic Congress every four years. So, as we build that tradition back, I think over 10 or 20 years, we are going to begin to see a larger impact that we will have.
How do you keep such a big event like the Congress as a grassroots movement, instead of just seeing it become a production that happens every four years?
You have to look for ways to make sure it’s a movement of the Holy Spirit and that it’s responding to the need that the Church has in that day.
That was the genius of the Eucharistic Revival, which wasn’t necessarily my genius or anybody’s genius but it was just responding to the need of the day.
As we responded to a need, people also experienced the beauty of the Church coming together, united around the Eucharist. And that’s ever-beautiful and ever-needed.
To have an event that really unifies the Church and brings her together for the sake of the Church is really important.
One of the bishops said to me that it’s ok if the Congress doesn’t reach everyone, that it’s ok if we don’t have people come to the Congress who don’t go to church, because the Church needs to come together sometimes and be refreshed and strengthened, and then we can go out to be able to reach those who don’t go to church.
That’s really the goal of our Congress.
The Eucharistic Revival discussions all began with data which suggested only one-third of Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Is that still the need you’re addressing, or has that shifted?
I do think the needs will continue to change as we go in terms of what the Church needs in this particular era. But everyone’s talking about the effect of revival happening in the country. This is the thing that people are talking about the most.
In the Diocese of Crookston, we had the largest numbers in OCIA last year in 20 years. And I don’t think that’s unusual. Bishops were just telling me today that in California, seminarian applications and acceptance are up all over the state, and there’s no real explanation — a lot more people seem to be discerning seminary and going to seminary.
There was a study done in England which said that Gen Z is becoming the most open generation to organized religion and that especially young men are really coming back and they’re coming to church and they’re coming to the Catholic Church in large numbers.
There’s a lot of growth happening, and I think the Eucharistic Congress will try to fan that flame of growth.
What happens between now and the 2029 Congress?
One of our big initiatives is the Eucharistic pilgrimages. So we will keep doing those every summer. We will soon announce what we’re going to do this spring for the Eucharistic pilgrimage, so that’s one way we keep bringing the Blessed Sacrament around the country.
But we’re seeing lots of dioceses doing Eucharistic Congresses, lots of dioceses understanding the power of the Eucharist for evangelization. That’s a fruit of the Eucharistic Revival, but I think it’s going to keep going.
Why do you think the annual Eucharistic pilgrimages are important?
It keeps the movement going and it keeps the movement alive.
So it helps us to continue to keep before people the importance of the Eucharistic Congress and the Eucharistic Revival — it keeps that alive for them but it also provides them an opportunity for encountering Christ.
That’s the beauty of what’s spreading — when people have an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist it changes their lives.
I would really encourage people to ask themselves about the next
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