Pope’s message to IEC2024: 'Cultivate Eucharistic fraternity’

By Lisa Zengarini

As he continues his Apostolic Journey to Asia and Oceania, Pope Francis has sent a video message to participants in the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress (IEC2024), which kicked off on Sunday in Quito, Ecuador.

The event, which takes place from 8-15 September at the Metropolitan Convention Center of the Ecuadorian capital, brings together some 4,000 participants gathered under the motto “Fraternity to heal the world."

In his message in Spanish, Pope Francis praised the choice of this “beautiful” theme, which highlights the close link between the Eucharist and fraternity “an essential condition”  for a more just and humane world.

The Eucharist unites people

Drawing from the early Church Fathers, the Pope recalled how bread, as a symbol of the Eucharist, unites people, as it cannot be made from a single grain. Similarly, people must walk together in unity, for though many, they are one body in Christ.

He quoted St. Augustine and St. Ignatius of Antioch to show how the Eucharist fosters this sense of profound fraternity born from a deep union with God.

Proactive "Eucharistic fraternity"

At the same time, Pope Francis called for a proactive form of "Eucharistic fraternity," citing the example of German nun Angela Autsch, who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

He recalled that even before she was arrested, “when the evil looming over the world was already evident”, she inspired her relatives to resist  through simple yet profound gestures like frequent Communion, in the conviction that the Eucharist strengthened the Church and its members against evil.

“These simple gestures," the Pope said, "make us more aware that if one member suffers, the whole body suffers with it; they help us become Christ's Simon of Cyrene, who took upon Himself the weight of the world's suffering in order to heal it.”

Concluding, the Pope, therefore, urged the faithful to learn this lesson and to recover this “radical fraternity” with God and with one another, embracing the unity found in Christ, as only in this unity, he said, can the world be healed.