At the conclusion of the International Eucharistic Congress of Quito 2024, the Legate of Pope Francis, Cardinal Baltazar Porras, encouraged the faithful gathered in the Bicentennial Park of the Ecuadorian capital to “go to meet everyday reality.”
“What are we doing in Quito?” asked the cardinal. “Why have we come to Quito, to walk, to experience a few days of the Oasis, of Tabor?” He added.
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“Or are we willing to go down to meet daily reality with the conviction for all that the world, theater of human history, with its struggles, failures and victories, the world that Christians believe founded and preserved by the love of the Creator, enslaved under the bondage of sin but freed by the crucified and resurrected Christ, broken the power of the devil so that the world is transformed according to divine purpose and reaches its consummation, be the scenario in which we have the obligation to be builders of hope that does not disappoint?
Fraternity, “an evangelical imperative”
Before the crowd gathered for the closing Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress, Cardinal Porras assured in his homily that “for Christians, fraternity is not an option that can or cannot be taken, it is consubstantial to the Christian faith,” and it is also “ an evangelical imperative.”
“We experience this daily in our sanctuaries, in pilgrimages, processions and celebrations, in selfless service to those in need,” he said, noting that it can also be seen “in the generosity of giving from our poverty, both materially and in cordial accompaniment and assistance to the weakest.”
“Christian brotherhood derives from the fact that the Eternal Son of God has not only become a human being but precisely the Universal Brother,” he assured. “But since love is not unilateral, our yes is also needed, that we accept the brotherhood of Jesus and that we become brothers of all, not throwing anyone out of our hearts, even if they do to us what hurts or hurts us.”
“The neglect or abandonment of this mandate of fraternity is the main cause of the injustices and scourges that humanity suffers,” he added.
“The Eucharist is not a simple memory”
Cardinal Porras also assured that “the Eucharist is not a simple memory,” but “it is the memorial, updating in the simplicity and smallness of a piece of bread and a little wine the good flavor that attracts and seduces us.”
“The Eucharist removes in us the hunger for things and ignites the desire to serve,” he stated, noting that “it lifts us from our comfortable sedentary lifestyle and reminds us that we are not only mouths to feed but also hands to feed our neighbors.” .
The cardinal warned that “a field of particular need” in today’s world is “the global tragedy represented by massive migrations forced by economic deprivation, political repression, ethnic or cultural discrimination, ideological terrorism, and religious persecution.”
He also encouraged taking care of “the common home,” something especially urgent in “Latin America, a continent devastated by the irrational exploitation of nature” in which “the ecological dimension acquires citizenship of virtue to be built.”
“Task accomplished”
At the conclusion of the ceremony, Mons. Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus, Archbishop of Quito and Primate of Ecuador, recalled that in September 2021 he received “the baton” of the International Eucharistic Congress. Then, “I said, excited, ‘I don’t know what we’ve gotten ourselves into.’ Today I can say that I do know what we got ourselves into.”
“Today we can say, with great joy, to the universal Church, to the Episcopal Conference of Ecuador, to the Holy Father, to the Ecuadorian people, to the city of Quito: task accomplished, we have fulfilled the task.
and believe me, all of us are going to breathe a little,” he expressed.
After thanking the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, the prelate announced that as a “social commitment” after the International Eucharistic Congress “we are going to create a network, to strengthen the network of parish soup kitchens, for children and the elderly, for the poorest, and that network is going to be called the Bread of Fraternity.”
The next headquarters of the International Eucharistic Congress
Cardinal Baltazar Porras was in charge of announcing the next location of the International Eucharistic Congress, in 2028: Sydney (Australia), which will have the opportunity to repeat the organization exactly 100 years after it did so for the first time, in 1928.
David Ramos
Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working at ACI Prensa, I have been based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered Pope Francis’ trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.