For the past few weeks, the world of U.S. politics has seemed especially contentious and unstable, with an overabundance of supercharged storylines producing a new wave of anxieties and raising the political temperature.
But as the political drama continues, 50,000 Catholics in Indianapolis and thousands more following the National Eucharistic Congress (NEC) from afar seem unphased, their attention decidedly not on partisan politics, but on the source and summit of their faith.
“I doubt there is any place in the nation so untroubled by our tumultuous politics right now as the attendees at the Eucharistic Congress,” Stephen White, the director of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America, told the Register from Indianapolis. “Not because people here are indifferent to politics, but because, right now, they’re focused on something infinitely higher and better.”
Running through Sunday, the five-day Eucharistic extravaganza comes on the heels of a July 13 assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump and amid ongoing calls for ailing President Joe Biden to not seek reelection, including from members of his own Democratic Party. The NEC has also overlapped with the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which began on Monday and concluded Thursday night, and precedes the Democratic convention in Chicago by one month.
Charles Camosy, a moral theologian who has been following the events in Indianapolis remotely, described the National Eucharistic Congress as “a respite from the idolatry and inauthenticity which runs rampant in U.S. political life.”
But Camosy, who writes a column called “Purple Catholicism” for Religion News Service, added that focusing on the Eucharist isn’t an excuse to ignore politics. Instead, he described it as an invitation to get involved politically “in a way that honors Christ at the center and puts everything else in that perspective.”
“In this sense, it is a powerful way of resisting the idolatry which has come to characterize much of Catholic engagement with politics, engagement which ends up forcing the Gospel into the secular boxes of ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative,’ ‘Democrat’ or ‘Republican,’ ‘red’ or ‘blue,’” Camosy told the Register.
Timothy O’Malley, a University of Notre Dame theologian, told the Register from Indianapolis that the congress wasn’t apolitical, but instead offered a different, truer experience of unity than the one promised by partisanship.
“Rather than joining together in ideology, in an ‘us versus them’ sacrificial logic, Catholics across the U.S. and globe have united around the Supper of the Lamb,” said O’Malley, who serves on the executive committee of the National Eucharistic Revival. “It is an enactment of a different kind of politics, one grounded in the unbloody sacrifice of the Mass.”
It’s an experience of communion that O’Malley thinks could be an antidote to widespread political division.
“I wish more people could see how nonideological, how joyful, this gathering is.”
Avoiding ‘Politicization’
That the Eucharistic congress is giving Catholics a respite from political drama and aiding in overcoming partisanship is a bit ironic, given that some worried that it might do the opposite.
When the bishops first learned in November 2021 that the NEC would take place in the heart of what promised to be a contentious election year, Bishop William Muhm expressed concerns that the timing could make it appear that the bishops were trying to politicize the Eucharist. The Archdiocese for the Military Services auxiliary even suggested that the USCCB reach out to both major political parties to ask that they not schedule their conventions during the National Eucharistic Congress.
Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, the bishops’ Eucharistic Revival point man, responded that it wasn’t likely that the USCCB would have much influence over when the Republicans and Democrats decided to hold their events.
Concerns that the congress could get mixed up with political agendas continued to be on the minds of organizers in the months leading up to Indianapolis.
A March report from The Pillar said that at least one Catholic figure slated to speak at the NEC had been discouraged from appearing at a political campaign event, out of concern that it could give the appearance that the Eucharistic congress was partisan.
“We are very much trying to keep the congress completely away from politics,” NEC spokeswoman Kate Sell said at the time.
Of course, not everyone in Indianapolis came free from partisan attachments. On the first night of the congress, Michael Heinlein said he sat next to a man wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat — which he didn’t remove during Eucharistic adoration.
Heinlein, the biographer of the late Cardinal Francis George, said the experience reminded him that “Catholics are not immune to what’s plaguing American culture right now” — but he also underscored that nothing on the congress’ agenda has contributed to “reinforcing political ideologies in any way whatsoever.”
In fact, Heinlein said that “every single thing this week [at NEC] points to Christ, and we’re all called to bring this to our communities across the nation.”
A Powerful Witness
Rather than politicizing the Eucharist, the congress’ overlap with partisan events like the Republican National Convention represented a powerful opportunity to reaffirm the preeminence of eternal things over temporal politics.
The impact was even noticeable to those on social media on Thursday, the closing night of the RNC.
“I’ve never really [been] taken by the whole ‘there are no coincidences!!’ line, but in terms of the NEC’s timing — the fact that nearly all the Catholics on my feed are posting pictures of Adoration instead of following the RNC is like next-level divine providence,” said Liz Hansen, a Register contributor, on X (formerly Twitter).
Other Catholics on social media that night, like Jose Galvan, noted the peculiarity of scrolling through a swirl of images depicting both 50,000 Catholics in Eucharist adoration but also America’s wild political culture.
“My [timeline] right now is a bewildering mix of Hulk Hogan ripping off his shirt at the GOP convention, the Eucharistic congress, and Biden memes,” said Galvan, who lives in Tennessee. “God bless America!”
Heinlein agreed that the timing of the National Eucharistic Congress was “Providential” and described it as an opportunity to witness to the country that, in the Eucharist, the Church has “the hope that many Americans are yearning for.”
“I see such a juxtaposition between Milwaukee and Indianapolis, or, undoubtedly, Chicago and Indianapolis next month, that I’m convinced our witness of pointing to Christ is what this country needs right now,” he said. “I pray that this week can help us live up to that high calling.”
