Quito 2024: Pope Francis sends video message during inaugural Mass of the International Eucharistic Congress

Recovering brotherhood with God and among men was the call that Pope Francis made, through a video message, to the nearly 25,000 people who attended the inaugural Mass of the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress Quito 2024, celebrated this September 8.

Under strong heat, thousands of people came to Bicentennial Park to participate in the Mass presided over by the Archbishop of Quito (Ecuador), Mons. Alfredo José Espinoza, in which 1,600 children from different parts of the country also received their First Communion.

Before beginning the Eucharist, the video message sent by the Holy Father, who is currently in Papua New Guinea as part of a pastoral visit to several countries in that region of the world, was broadcast on giant screens.

In his message, Pope Francis highlighted the motto of the congress, Fraternity to heal the worldand assured that “the lessons we can learn from the Holy Eucharist always surprise us.”

In that sense, he indicated that among all the teachings, it was decided to choose for this 53rd International Eucharistic Congress that of fraternity, “as an essential condition for a new world, a more just world, a more human world.”

“The first Fathers of the Church already told us that the sign of bread enkindles in the People of God the desire for fraternity, because in the same way that bread cannot be made with a single grain, we too must walk together, because ‘ Being many, we are one body, one bread,’” Francis explained, quoting sermon 227 of Saint Augustine.

“This is how we grow as brothers, this is how we grow as a Church, united by the water of baptism and refined by the fire of the Holy Spirit,” he assured.

The Pontiff explained that a deep brotherhood is born from union with God and from “letting ourselves be ground, like wheat, in order to become bread, the body of Christ, thus participating fully in the Eucharist and the assembly of saints.” .

But he also pointed out that the fraternity must be proactive, and gave as an example the testimony of the German nun Angela Autsch, who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Pope related that before being arrested, “the evil that was brewing in the world was already evident, she invited her little nephews, who were coming to Holy Communion for the first time, she invited her somewhat distant relatives and she also invited those who remained devout, to rebel against that evil with simple and, in certain environments, dangerous gestures, to get as close as possible to the Sacrament of the altar, to rebel by taking communion.”

“For her to encourage frequent communion, especially in the area of ​​prayer for the Pope and the Church that was persecuted at that time, was to find in the Eucharist a bond that reinforces the vigor of the Church itself,” among its members. and with God.

For the German nun “it was ‘organizing’ the framework of a resistance that the enemy cannot disrupt, because it does not respond to a human design.”

“These simple gestures,” said the Pope, “are what make us more aware that if one member suffers, the whole body suffers with him, they are what help us to become Cyrenees of Christ, who took upon himself the weight of pain.” of the world to heal the world.”

“Sisters, brothers, let us learn this lesson, let us recover this radical brotherhood with God and among men. We are one in the only Lord of our life; We are one in a way that we are not able to fully understand, but what we do understand is that only in that unity can we serve the world and heal it,” said the Holy Father.

The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress will take place until Sunday, September 15 and includes conferences, testimonies, as well as Masses in different languages ​​and a procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of the Ecuadorian capital.