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By Matt Palmer

INDIANAPOLIS - A Pew Research Center poll in 2019 found that one-third of American Catholics believe in the real presence of the Holy Eucharist, resulting in the U.S. bishops calling for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in the heart of the Midwest. After years of planning, an estimated 40,000-plus Catholics have descended on the city with the hope of reviving the faith.

During his homily at the opening Mass on July 18, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who received his doctorate in American Church History from ������ in 1982, challenged his fellow Catholics to turn the tide. 

Looking out over thousands of Catholics packed inside Lucas Oil Stadium, normally home to the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts, Cardinal Dolan saw hope. 

“My brothers and sisters, to recover the centrality of Sunday Mass as God’s people are fed with the bread of life has to be the resolve of this grand Eucharistic Congress,” the Cardinal said. “As Pope Francis has repeated, no Eucharist, no Church.”

Cardinal Dolan cited the , in which he said, “The Eucharist is not a beautiful rite, but it is the most intimate, the most concrete, the most surprising communion that one can imagine with God: a communion of love so real that it takes on the form of eating.’ 

The cardinal reflected on the nourishment from engaging in the faith and the Mass in his stirring homily. He shared stories of those persecuted and denied the Eucharist in other nations. 

“The Holy Eucharist is a sacrifice, the real presence, and a meal, right? The Masses are sacrifices,” Cardinal Dolan said. “The Eucharist is the real presence of Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity as we adore him locked in the tabernacle, in the monstrance on the altar, or carried in procession.”

Reflecting on the words said at each Mass, Cardinal Dolan ended his homily by telling those gathered, “How blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb. That’s you and I right now, sharing in the sacred meal called the Holy Eucharist.”