CNA Staff, Apr 10, 2024 / 18:00 pm (CNA).
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), announced April 9 the opportunity for Catholics who participate in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and the National Eucharistic Congress to receive plenary indulgences.
Broglio requested that the Apostolic Penitentiary, the office in charge of granting plenary indulgences within the Roman Curia, grant a plenary indulgence to all those who take part in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
It was also requested that he or another prelate be designated to impart the apostolic blessing with a plenary indulgence to the faithful present at the National Eucharistic Congress, which takes place July 17–21 in Indianapolis.
“It is with gratitude to the Holy Father that we receive his apostolic blessing upon the participants in the National Eucharistic Congress and for the opportunity for Catholics in our country to obtain a plenary indulgence by participating in the events of the Eucharistic Revival,” Broglio said in a statement released by the USCCB.
He added: “Through the efforts of the revival over the last two years, we have been building up to the pilgrimage and congress that will offer Catholics a chance to experience a profound, personal revival of faith in the Eucharist. Pope Francis continues to encourage and support us as we seek to share Christ’s love with a world that is desperately in need of him.”
A decree issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary and approved by the Holy Father states that the plenary indulgence will be granted to the Christian faithful who participate in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage at any point between May 17 and July 16.
The indulgence will also be granted to the elderly, the infirm, and all those who cannot leave their homes for a grave reason but who participate “in spirit,” uniting their prayers with the pilgrimage.
A second decree issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary and approved by Pope Francis grants Broglio, or any other prelate of episcopal rank assigned by him, the ability to impart a papal blessing with a plenary indulgence to those who participate in the National Eucharistic Congress following the holy sacrifice of the Mass.
The faithful who, “due to reasonable circumstances and with pious intention,” have received the papal blessing through media communications can also obtain a plenary indulgence.
Both indulgences are granted under the usual conditions of confession, receiving the Eucharist, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father.
The National Eucharistic Congress is a monumental moment for the U.S. bishops’ three-year initiative, the Eucharistic Revival, which began on the feast of Corpus Christi in 2022 and continues through 2025.
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Relative to the Eucharistic Congress—and the sacramental Real Presence—and of possible interest to those who possibly disdain this even and such faith…Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI’s posthumous book offers words to be pondered even by indifferent Nones (spiritual but not religious!) and even scientistic atheists.
Regarding “transubstantiation” and the Aristotelian—and prescientific—”substance” and “accidents,” from Benedict’s chapter on “The Meaning of Communion”, this:
“In order to explain this [the definition of ‘transubstantiation’], the philosophical category of ‘substance’ was employed, saying that the substance is taken away, as noted, and replaced with another, while the accidents of the bread and wine remain. Over the course of the development of philosophical thought and of the natural sciences, the concept of substance changed essentially and, likewise, the concept of what, in Aristotelian thought, had been designated an accident.’
“The concept of substance, which previously had been applied to every reality that subsists in itself, was more and more often used to refer to what is physically ungraspable, such as molecules, atoms, or elementary particles—although today we know that even these are not ‘substances’, but rather structures of relations [!]. This gave rise to a new task for Christian philosophy. The fundamental category of all reality in general terms is no longer substance, but, rather, relation. In this regard, we Christians can say only that for our faith God himself is relation, relatio subsistens. The fundamental category of a philosophy that corresponds to the findings of today’s natural sciences is identical to the fundamental category of the faith: God is relatio subsistens [….]” (Benedict XVI, “What is Christianity? The Last Writings,” Ignatius, 2023, pp. 155-174).
(Relatio subsistens? God is not to be objectified as yet another ex-isting thing among all other created things, but IS the sub-sisting and freely creating Being in action.)
And, the revealed “circumincession”—the absolutely simply theological doctrine of the reciprocal “existence” in each other (!) of the three persons of the supernatural Trinity—is like the finite human mind lately discovering that physical reality, too, is relational rather than ye olde “substantial.” For example, that under “quantum entanglement” a “subatomic” event in one part of the universe cannot be described independently of the simultaneous state of the other subatomic relations billions of miles and years distant—irrespective whatever time requirement might otherwise be presumed by the constant speed of light.
SUMMARY: at the consecration, the ordained priest speaks the words of the incarnate Jesus Christ, “THIS is my Body;” and not “this bread is my body.” Maybe one of the speakers at the Eucharistic Congress will dip into Benedict’s providentially well-timed and posthumous book.
A fascinating comment on the Holy Eucharist and being. Aristotle’s term substance or being as a category relates to material existence, explained in terms of form and matter, substance and accidents. God who is unconditional being cannot be relational to other things. Although your rendition here requires much thought, what Benedict says on a new philosophical understanding is subject to questioning [the comparatively ancient transubstantiation is simple and sufficiently clear for human understanding]. You allude to this in parenthesis and state it well (Relatio subsistens? God is not to be objectified as yet another ex-isting thing among all other created things, but IS the sub-sisting and freely creating Being in action.)
Being as Being simply understood as First Principle for the human intellect is sufficient. Deeper awareness or intellectual knowledge is gained spiritually as God is pure spirit different in kind from matter and matter based conceptions. When I speak the words of consecration I know God works a spiritual reality changing the visible tangible reality in my hands into himself. It’s the supreme moment in my life realizing what occurs is both mystery and miracle of love.