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Was the Congress a ‘revival’? Skip to content As the National Eucharistic Congress concluded Sunday, it was easy to hear Catholics in Indianapolis comparing the five-day event favorably to 1993’s World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado, and suggesting that the Congress could have an impact on the U.S. Church at the same scale as the historic Denver gathering. A Eucharistic procession is displayed on a large screen in Lucas Oil Stadium. Credit: Giovanni Chilelli/Pillar Media. World Youth Day 1993 is widely credited with sparking a wave of priestly and religious vocations in the Church, and catalyzing a new apostolic and evangelical energy among a generation of practicing young American Catholics. Comparing the Congress to World Youth Day is meant to describe the five-day gathering last week as ...

By Phil Lawler ( bio – articles – email ) | Jul 19, 2024 The American presidential race has provided plenty of headlines for the secular outlets this week. As for news of the Catholic world? Not so much. The National Eucharistic Congress was a spectacular event, apparently inspiring many thousands of the faithful. But while adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is at the heart of Catholic spiritual life, it does not provide catchy story lines. Meanwhile at the Vatican, the relative quiet reveals the fact that in Rome, most sensible people take time off in July. Consequently our headlines have been less numerous and less dramatic than usual. So let me say something about a potentially dramatic news story that we did not cover—because it did not happen. For the past several weeks a ...

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INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) — There are few Catholics in the country, and even the world, who don’t know the name of Father Mike Schmitz. The college campus ministry chaplain from the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, and the keynote for the National Eucharistic Congress’ July 18 revival session in Indianapolis, is internationally renowned for his “Bible in a Year” and “Catechism in a Year” podcasts, provided through Catholic publisher Ascension, that have topped the podcasting charts in recent years. At a press gaggle with reporters a few hours before his talk in Indianapolis, Father Schmitz offered his wisdom on a number of topics — especially evangelization and the importance of Eucharist. From that conversation, here are five tips curated from Father Schmitz’s experience to help Catholics beco...

PARIS (OSV News) — As Paris stands in the starting blocks for the 2024 Olympic Games that kick off July 26, the Olympic truce was launched in the iconic La Madeleine church in the heart of the French capital July 19. Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris and Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard of Digne, special representative of the Holy See for the 2024 Paris Olympics, celebrated a solemn Mass in the presence of over a hundred diplomatic delegations. “Blessed is the wisdom that also presides over the Olympic spirit and dwells in our hearts as we turn to the Lord to give thanks and implore him on behalf of our world,” Archbishop Ulrich said in his homily. Pope Francis said July 21 during his Angelus prayer that sport “has a great social power, and it can peacefully unite people from different cultures...

Readings:2 Kings 4:42–44Psalm 145:10-11, 15–18Ephesians 4:1–6John 6:1–15 Today’s liturgy brings together several strands of Old Testament expectation to reveal Jesus as Israel’s promised Messiah and King, the Lord who comes to feed His people. Notice the parallels between today’s Gospel and First Reading. Both Elisha and Jesus face a crowd of hungry people with only a few “barley” loaves. We hear similar words about how impossible it will be to feed the crowd with so little. And in both the miraculous multiplication of bread satisfies the hungry and leaves food left over. The Elisha story looks back to Moses, the prophet who fed God’s people in the wilderness (see Exodus 16). Moses prophesied that God would send a prophet like him (see Deuteronomy 18:15–19). The crowd in today’s Gospel, wi...

Every person requires truly individual attention. Especially a child; especially today. Among the greatest tragedies is a neglected child, more so even than a sick, injured, or hungry child. Of course there is neglect, and there is neglect. Let’s focus on the lesser and more pervasive form. I don’t want to be overly dramatic. Yet I honestly think that some form of this often plays out, rather unnoticed, under our very noses. Perhaps in our own home. An easy way to start to think about this for many of us is to go into our own childhood. Let me clear: the point here is not to fabricate problems, nor to point fingers at anyone else for our real issues! I simply suggest a mental exercise in view of re-forming our own approach to young people—whether our children, our grandchildren, godchildre...

It’s providential that as Catholics flock to Indianapolis for the first National Eucharistic Congress in the United States in 83 years, the Church offers the readings for the 16th Sunday or Ordinary Time, Year B. The readings offer enormous hope, but it’s Christian hope — that means that the hope for peace is available to anyone willing to take up Christ’s offer, with its cross, and follow. The hope is badly needed. It doesn’t take much imagination to apply to today the words the readings use to describe the world of Biblical times. We are a “vast crowd … like sheep without a shepherd;” we live in a “dark valley” surrounded by enemies; our nation has a “dividing wall of enmity” down the middle; we have seen shepherds who “mislead and scatter the flock.” Into this comes the National Euchari...

I don’t have solid poll data backing me up on the following. But, in my experience, if you walk up to church-going, scripture-quoting evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals and say that you are trying to think of a Bible verse defined by “6:11” many, if not most, will say, “You mean Ephesians 6:11?” Click for Crossroads podcast That would be the following (and I have included verses 12-13, as well): Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all,...

What’s the Vatican saying about alleged apparitions? Skip to content Since the Vatican unveiled a new streamlined process for evaluating alleged apparitions in May, a steady stream of rulings have followed. Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, pictured outside of Westminster Cathedral in London, England, on June 22, 2024. © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk. The judgments, issued by the Vatican’s doctrine office, are written in somewhat technical language and address supposed supernatural events that may be unfamiliar to English-speaking Catholics. Here’s a quick guide to the statements issued since the publication of the new norms by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), led by the industrious Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernánde...