National Eucharistic Congress Recap: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[00:00:11] The National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis generated a lot of enthusiasm among Catholics, but was it successful in its mission? We're going to talk about both the highs and lows of the congress today on crisis point. Hello, America. Simmons, your host and chief of Crisis magazine. [00:00:28] Before we get started, you know what to do. Smash that, like, button. Subscribe to the channel. Let other people know about it. We're on YouTube. We're on. I think we end up being on Rumble and odyssey as well. We go to all the major podcast platforms, so just let other people know about. I find it funny. Sometimes I'll find people who follow me on Twitter won't even know I have a podcast, even after following me for a while. So let people know about it. Also, you can subscribe to our email newsletter. Just go crisismagazine.com. put your email address, and we will not spam you. We will just send you articles. Follow us on social media riceismag at all the major social media sites. Okay, so the National Eucharistic Congress was last week in Indianapolis, and I was there for part of it. And so I just wanted to talk about it. I had a podcast about a month or so ago about it, whether or not how we judge whether or not successful. But I want to talk about actually being there and what I thought of it and talking to people, other people who are there and kind of give a recap of it. First, I just want to say that I had actually hoped to do a podcast live from the Congress itself. I brought my equipment. The problem was, is that where we most likely pays to do it did not have free Wi Fi, and I didn't really feel like paying all the money for it, because I was 100% sure if it worked. Our cellular was really bad. Where we could have had with free Wi Fi wasn't a great place to set up. But anyway, I just realized, okay, got it scrapped. I was gonna do it with Tim Flanders over at one Peter five, but we decided not to also. This is kind of a funny thing. [00:02:03] I really appreciate, first of all, the people who came up to me and said they enjoy the work we're doing here at crisis. I did notice, however, that a good number of them kind of said it almost in a conspiratorial tone, kind of like, don't let anybody else here know, but I like what you're doing, almost like, you know, I don't know that it wouldn't be approved by. By the masters there if somebody said that they liked what we're doing here. At crisis, because we can be critical at times. I know that. So I just kind of thought that was funny. But all those that I talk to there and that follow what we do, I do appreciate you coming up to me and chatting. I love meeting people in real life who follow crisis. [00:02:44] Okay, so the Eucharistic Congress itself, here's the thing. What I found is, because the age we live in, maybe we've always been like this, but definitely true and exacerbated on social media, you'll find people either saying, this was the greatest event in the history of the Catholic Church ever, it's going to change the whole church in America. Everything's going to be different from now on. This was just awesome. Or they will say this was an abomination. This was terrible, it was protestant. It was just awful. It was. I don't know, all the different things. They'll condemn it unequivocally. Well, I just. I don't do that. And unless I think something really does deserve, you know, complete praise or complete condemnation, the fact is, is the national Eucharistic Congress was a product of the american church. And the american church, as we all know, has issues. It has its good and its bad. And so, therefore, a product of that american church is going to reflect that. [00:03:46] This was run by, essentially by the USCCB, the bishops, I mean, they had people doing the legwork, but the bishops, this is the bishops Congress. It was for, you know, they helped. They decided to do it. And so we all know the crop of bishops we have in America, there's some good, some really bad, whole bunch in the middle. And so, event that they hold is going to reflect that. [00:04:12] One thing to note is that just because, just because of the fact that the bishops were organized this, you knew there's going to be a good crowd because of the fact that it now becomes an establishment thing that you can do in your. In your parish, in your diocese. So diocese can, can get buses together to go, youth groups can get, get together and go with their parish because it's all approved. And you saw that with the march for life, Washington, DC. That's one reason you get so many people there, is, it's an improved activity. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but I am saying it does kind of spike the numbers because things that you wouldn't necessarily might be a good event, but they're not approved by a diet, by the bishop, by the diocese. You're not going to give as many people going there. So the fact is, though, I found being there and also hearing other people's eyewitness accounts, that there was some good at it, but it also had issues. And so I feel like if we just cheerlead for the Congress, what happens is we just continue with the status quo in the church, which obviously has not worked. We've had decades of status quo and decades of decline. That's just reality. Now, I don't want to question the intentions of those who held the Congress, and especially not those who went to the congress attended, because the fact that it's an effort to stop the decline. Okay, I'm with you on that. [00:05:43] I support that. But how it was done does matter. It's not just good intentions, but the execution that matters. The fact is we have lots of events in the catholic church, lots of events, conferences, retreats, conventions, all these different things, and nothing really changes. On a, on the macro level, yes, I know individual lives are touched, and that's important. [00:06:12] But when we talk about Congress of this size or event of this size, we do need to look at the macro level. I mean, I would say that if you look at all the events in America, catholic events in America over the past, you know, since Vatican II, really only one, I think, moved the needle, and that was World Youth Day 1993 in Denver when JP two came. I do think that moved the needle. You had a large number of vocations that came out of that, a large number of people who really did change their lives in a good trajectory. But even saying that, we all know that the church has been in radical decline since around 2000. I mean, we should know that. I've talked about a lot here. So even that when I say that 1993, World Youth Day moved the needle, it clearly didn't stop the decline or anything like that. It just did help in some areas. My prayer is that the National Eucharistic Congress has just concluded will be similar in moving the needle. But I'm skeptical of it, as we'll see here in a minute, of how much of an impact it will have. So I want to go through, I call it the good, the bad and the ugly of the Congress. The first is that, okay, let's say the first is the good. Let's talk about the good. [00:07:26] I think the best thing about this whole eucharistic revival, which includes the Congress and all the other stuff involved, it's a three year program, was the national eucharistic pilgrimages, where processions happened all across the country, kind of making the form of a cross going into Indianapolis. So you came from the east coast, west coast, down south, up north, they all, and they all converged on Indianapolis. I thought that was a wonderful idea. And from a lot of, and of course, I only went to when it came through Cincinnati, where I live, but from a lot of videos and pictures I saw, it was really well done in a lot of places. Now, we all know it wasn't well done in all places. I don't know if you saw the video, Arnold Cupich in Chicago. That was just awful. I mean, it basically, they were sprinting around a building trying to get back in. But in general, I thought that was a wonderful idea because I am such a huge proponent of eucharistic processions. I think they're the great. I think the fact that they stopped being done, essentially, in the church in the 1970s and eighties is just a tragedy and is one of the reasons why we have such a lack of belief in the real presence of the blessed, in the blessed of Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament. [00:08:38] So whoever thought that idea, kudos to you. I honestly think it was the best thing about the entire eucharistic revival was eucharistic pilgrimages that they had. What else was good? Okay, let's talk about the congress. The congress was well, well run. There was a little bit of a glitch on the first day that the lines to register to enter in were super long and took. I mean, just, it was getting kind of ridiculous. Clearly, they did not, uh, they were not prepared for the number of people who came in on the first day. [00:09:10] You know, other than that, though, it really was professionally run. It was like, things were basically on time. You, you know, there's plenty of facilities, like, you know, for, for the food wasn't that great, but I brought my own food. [00:09:22] The. But, like, there was food available. There was restrooms readily available. The convention center where it was at was very nice. Um, you know, all that weather was perfect that I didn't. I know they didn't plan that, but it was, it was very good weather. So I really do think that was good, because these things can. I mean, I have organized small conferences, like maybe a couple thousand people, and that's a lot of work. A lot of work to do that. So imagine a. How many four day or whatever it was, Congress with tens of thousands of people coming from all over the country, all these different things to coordinate. That is a lot of work. And I respect the people who did it because they clearly knew what they're doing. I just saw in the comments somebody mentioned Indianapolis is a fantastic place for large conferences. It really is. I mean, first of all, it's centrally located in the country. I don't like, everything's always being in, like, DC or New York, some of that. It's relatively cheap as far as housing and things like that compared to the big cities. And, and it just has a lot of facilities. I mean, there's a lot of things that you could do there. So I thought that was very good. So that, I want to say that also, I want to give kudos that the traditional latin mass was celebrated on two different occasions connected to the congress. I know some trads are like, you know, you're just begging for scraps at the table, whatever. I just don't have that attitude. I recognize the reality we are in, that traditional latin mass is, first of all, a very small part of the Catholic Church around the world, but including America. And it's also very controversial, mostly because of our current pontiff. And so the Congress did not have to have any TLMs there, and it would have been the safe thing to do for them not to have any traditional Latin masses at the Congress. So I do want to give them credit that they did have to, including one celebrated by an archbishop. Archbishop Cordaliono, San Francisco celebrated one. I was at that, at a nearby church. There was some controversy about the fact that was in a small church that was about a mile away that you had to walk to or drive to. And I walked to it, and I realized about halfway there, this is a longer walk than I thought on the map. And I was like, oh, shoot. But it wasn't that bad. [00:11:43] But really, I think it was more just coordination. [00:11:47] I would prefer to have traditional mass inside a church, a beautiful church, rather than in a hall at a convention center. And so the fact they had in a church was nice and was a very nice looking church, too. Traditional church. And it's the, and it's the TLM parish, and it is the closest church there other than the one that's right across the street from the convention center. But that was open the whole time for perpetual adoration. And I understand that that's a high priority. I don't criticize them for that, so I'm not going to be critical of that. So I said, I'll put that under the good category, that the traditional latin mass was celebrated. Also. They had some divine liturgy, eastern divine liturgies. I think that's great. Expose people to the eastern divine liturgy. In fact, I was talking to a friend of mine I saw at the conference, and I know she's attended the TLM many times and she never attended an eastern liturgy. So I told her, hey, go attend the eastern liturgy rather than a TLM from Archbishop Corleone because you've never been there. It's something good to experience. [00:12:45] Another good thing there were, I mean, just the fact that it was a eucharistic congress is a good, we had to put that in the good category because remember, they could have done a convention, a conference. I mean, they could have done like some type of event, but they did a congress, a eucharistic congress. And that is a direct connection to the pre Vatican II church because that's when they used to do eucharistic congresses. The last one done in America, national one, was in 1941. And they used to be huge events in the church. And so the fact they said, hey, let's look back at what was done in the past to see how we might be able to solve our problems of today. [00:13:30] That's all we've been trying to say around here is that let's look to the past, our tradition, to look for solutions to our problems today. [00:13:40] And that's what they did. We'll get into execution. We'll get about some ways they, I don't think they did that great, but the fact is, is that's a good thing. They're talking about doing another eucharistic congress in maybe ten years or something like that. So I think we have to recognize that. And there were, because there are aspects of it that are just inherently traditional. Adoration, processions. Those things are just inherently traditional and they are good pious events, activities that we should encourage. So again, praise to the having a Eucharistic Congress rather than just some generic event. [00:14:21] That way it was very clear that you're going to have adoration. We're going to have processions, things like that. Also, there were some good speakers there. Scott Hahn was there, Patrick Madrid, Trent Horn, some others like that. Some good speakers there. I'm going to talk about the speakers a little bit more in a minute, and it's going to be under the bad category, unfortunately. But there were some good speakers there also. I just want to say that everybody, I mean, almost every, probably everybody there, the vast majority of people who are attendees are good, sincere Catholics. [00:14:53] They're trying to grow in their faith. They're trying to draw closer to Jesus and to bless his sacrament. [00:14:58] That's, that's a good, when you get Catholics who are serious about their faith gathering together to worship the Lord in the eucharist, how can you say that's a bad thing. I'm not going to say it's a bad thing. It's not a bad thing. We can be critical about certain aspects of the event and emphasis and things they didn't talk about, stuff like that. Fine, I'll do that in a second. But the fact is the people who were there, good, sincere, solid Catholics. And so that's, that's a good thing. Okay, so that's kind of the good. Now I want to talk about what I'd say is the bad. And the things I have under bad, they're kind of, you know, some are worse than others. I'll just put it that way. Some are maybe nitpicking a little bit, and some, I think are more serious problems. The first is there was the typical protestant style music and kind of praise music there that kind of dominated. Now, I don't think I mentioned under the good, but there was one night, I think it was Thursday night at the main event with adoration going on in the big stadium. They did have gregorian chant and they did have some beautiful traditional chant there. So I'm not saying it was all the time, but there was mostly the music was kind of the Steubenville experience music, which I mean, as the student ville effect. I mean, their conferences they've been having for decades, that's the impact it has. This is just what you do. I mean, it would be almost unheard of for an official, like, institutional catholic event not to have that music. They'd have to be a, you know, explicitly trad group or something like that, not to have this type of music. But I still think, though, even though it's standard fare, status quo, I'm just not a fan. I mean, I. Here's the thing. I don't even not like that music. I listen that music sometimes, like in the radio or something like that. It's not like I'm like, the music is the worst thing like that. [00:16:49] It just. We have such a deep tradition in our church of sacred music that the fact that that's the dominant music just really just shows a rupture from the tradition of church. I mean, no institution has created more beautiful, inspired, more beautiful music than the catholic church. [00:17:15] And yet we ignore 99.9% of it and we throw out ditties from like the seventies and the nineties and the two thousands that are inspired by protestant music. I just don't get that. I'm sorry. Maybe it's an age thing, although I don't think it is because, I mean, young people are flocking traditional at mass with, with gororian chant and sacred music, things like that. But it just is something that you do. I now note that there was some criticism when people saw some charismatic type stuff going on that wasn't during mass, that was during the adoration and things like that. I'm not phrasing it. I'm just simply stating there is a difference between having that music and mass and having that music, like at other times. Okay, so that's, that's, that's first thing I want to mention is there, there was too much of that, in my opinion. I mean, maybe have one night with that kind of music, but every other night should be dominated by sacred music, but meaning like old traditional hymns and gregorian chant and things like that. Instead, they kind of did the reverse. They had one night that was more traditional and the rest of the nights, more of the process in Steubenville type music. [00:18:17] Another thing, this is like a small thing, but, like, I noticed that, like, Cardinal Dolan celebrated a mass and they, they talked about it in their, we got, if you went to the, if you register for the Congress, you got emails each day with, like, an update, and they, they featured Cardinal Dolan in his homily at the, during Mass in which he said that the Eucharist is a meal. I, where we gather at the divine table to celebrate the saving action of our God. [00:18:45] Really? [00:18:47] We're still emphasizing the fact that the Eucharist is a meal, not the holy sacrifice on Calvary. [00:18:54] Like, I'm not one who is, like, you can't ever say it's a meal. I do understand that there are various aspects of the mass and of the Eucharist, the holy sacrifice obviously being a main one, but also the last Supper. I'm not, I'm not claiming there's no meal aspects, but we have been emphasizing the meal aspects in the Catholic Church for decades now. And where has it got us? It's, it's a casual. Like, it's basically like our meals at home with our family. We're just all casual. We, that's what we do at mass. So I just thought that was, like, missing the point. Cardinal Dolan, that, that you emphasize that was a meal rather than the holy sacrifice, or at least that's what they even emphasize. You might have said more. I didn't actually didn't go to that mass. But my point is, this is what the organizers of the Eucharistic Congress emphasize about Cardinal Dolan's homily, which I thought was unfortunate. [00:19:48] Okay, we're on the bad category. So let's talk about the speakers in general. The speakers were exactly who you expected them to be the most. Like, safe and non controversial speakers you could have. Not one of them. There was one I thought was controversial, but clearly they didn't think that. And I'll talk about her in a second. But like, it's, it's, it's the standard professional Catholics that you see at every event that come to every event. And here's the thing is, the reason they are chosen is because they are safe. Not one of them is going to get up there and say, we need to institute communion on the tongue. [00:20:27] Interesting aside on that, I gave some of my thoughts on Eucharistic Congress, on the, on, on X and Bishop. And I mentioned something about this, and Bishop Strickland actually commented on it and said that he thinks that the bishop should remove the indult for communion in the hand in America. [00:20:48] That's why somebody, Bishop Strickland is not invited to this event. [00:20:52] Nobody there is going to say, we need to have like communion rails, kneeling, receiving, kneeling, receiving on the tongue. We need to all celebrate ad or antum, nothing like that. It just. You're not going to get it. And also there was the emphasis on celebrity. I do not understand, and I'm not saying against this guy personally, I do not understand the big deal about Jonathan Rumi. I think that's how you pronounce the name. The guy who plays Jesus in the chosen. I mean, he is the, like the number one go to speaker at a catholic event anymore. Like, I'm not claiming he doesn't have a faith, isn't catholic, anything like that? I don't know. What I am claiming, though, is why does he have a life experience that makes him a great speaker? Because he's a celebrity and basically he's an actor. And in, in more civilized times, people didn't trust actors because an actor can act, which means they can act like anybody up there. You don't know when they're sincere. He might be very sincere, but I also know he's an actor. So I just don't get the. You know, there's a certain celebrity worship that goes on, and I, and I think that's a problem. But my bigger complaint is simply the fact that they didn't have one speaker who's really going to go off script. [00:22:04] And as we'll see, as I'm going to talk about here in a minute, we need to go off script. I mean, we need to go off script. If we're really going to change the culture in the catholic church and have a true eucharistic revival, I do want to mention one speaker in particular, and this was a speaker who was at not at a breakout session or a smaller session like that because they allowed those. This was at the main stage in Lucas Oil arena or Stadium for at night, for the big one that everybody goes to. They had like top speakers for this, like Jonathan Rumi, they had, you know, Bishop Barron, they had Christophonic. I think they had people like that. [00:22:50] They had Gloria Purvis as one of the these. So there's only like about maybe a half a dozen or a dozen speakers on that level, and she was one of them. Now, if you're not sure, if you don't know, she is. She was an EWTN personality who got fired, basically EWTN. And she's an african american woman who basically, after the George Floyd riots, the summer of love in 2020, she became a complete race baiter. I don't know another way to put it. If you follow her, and I don't follow her by. See her post on x, she is constantly claiming the catholic church is full of racism. She's constantly bringing up racist practices from the past and saying, we need to repair them. But she doesn't ever say specifically how. Here's one example. This is from like a week or two ago. She was saying how it used to be that whites received communion before blacks at catholic churches in America. Number one. I don't know if that's even true. I've never heard of that. But let's grant that it was true, at least at some places. Clearly, it wasn't a common practice, or else we'd all know about it and it would have been such a huge deal to change. Maybe it happened at certain, you know, isolated incidents. Well, she was bringing it up like, we need to repair this. What do you mean? We don't do it anymore. It's repaired. I mean, that's the rep. That's the repairing of it, is that we no longer have those practices in the church. And if anybody even tried a practice like that, they'd be condemned so harshly within the catholic church and so quickly. I mean, a priest who tried that would be run out of town like that, and everybody knows it. So we've solved the problem of having communion somehow. Segregated, but yet she wants this repair. But basically, then when you try getting specific specifics from her, she basically plays a passive aggressive. You don't understand, you're racist, whatever. And they had this person, as one of the featured speakers, one of the main featured speakers at this, to talk about racism and whatnot. [00:24:43] So I just thought that was a real, a real problem, because it really, if your focus is eucharistic, the Eucharistic congress is belief in Eucharist. How does this solve anything? How does this help anything to have someone who's clearly a race baiter up there? [00:24:58] Okay, so that's the speakers. Another. That was under the bad. Of course, another thing is that I would. That. [00:25:06] I mean, this is a small thing, but, like, they gave you a ton of swag when you walked in. I mean, I have all this stuff. I'm going to throw it all away pretty soon. But you get all these booklets and different things in a bag where you're there. And one of the main ones I noticed, like, as soon as I open up, it has a featured article on a working mom. [00:25:28] And it's like, is that really what we need to feature these days as working moms? Don't we need to give a lot more support to those heroic mothers who stay at home with their children and raise them, who are, who families are willing to sacrifice having only one income instead of two in order for the mom to be with her kids at all times? But instead, it's this idea that we gotta, like, be modern, we gotta be hip. I mean, it's a feminist influence, of course. And so it features, like, a working mom who works from home, I'm sure, and that makes it all better somehow. But it does mean that she's not spending full time with her children. And I just don't think that's something that should be a feature, something they're giving out at the Eucharistic congress. [00:26:12] Okay, so those are some specifics. The real problem, though, that what I under, under the bad at the Eucharistic congress was simply that it ignores the real issues in the Catholic Church when it comes to eucharistic piety, eucharistic devotion, belief in the real presence. It's simply ignoring them. Like I said, all the speakers there were all safe. They're not going to talk about any of the controversial things. I want to remind people that the origin of this eucharistic Congress is the fact that the bishops didn't have the guts to deny communion to Joe Biden. [00:26:51] I mean, that's just a reality. That's what set things off, basically. They saw that people weren't believing in the real presence. There was talk about, we need to deny communion to pro abortion politicians. Like Joe Biden, there was a big fight in the USCCB. They was like, do that. We don't have support for that, but let's do something. So we're going to have this eucharistic revival in the Eucharistic Congress. Now, again, God can use anything, you know, for his good. So I'm not saying that the whole thing is bad. I'm just saying, though, they didn't want. They were not going to bring that up. Nobody at the Congress is wrenching that we should not give communion to Joe Biden or other pro abortion politicians. And because of that, we have this scandalous. If we really believe it's the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, and if we really believe St. Paul's words, that you bring on condemnation on yourself if you receive unworthily, and then, yet we still hand it out like. Like a Pez dispenser to anybody and everybody, no matter what, including those who are in public and serious sin. [00:27:55] It's a mixed message. We'll just put it that way. And so that's that. Those are the type of thing. That's one example of what they're ignoring. They're ignoring the communion on the hand. I mean, when I went to the eucharistic pilgrimage procession at my, in Cincinnati, they had a mass before in the cathedral, and it was so full that people were standing outside. I was outside in the street outside of it, because the fact they couldn't fit everybody in the church. Great, right? But then, like during communion, after. During mass, need speakers set up. Some priests just come out, stand on the street by themselves and start handing out communion. There's no patent, there's no like umbrella or anything, maybe to protect, you know, from elements or anything like that. It wasn't. It was a good day, but still, they. And then people were going up and receiving in the hand. And I admit, because I go to the traditional at mass each week, I'm not used to seeing that anymore. I mean, I used for 20 years, I attended the novus ordo regularly. I still attend it at times. But it's still somewhat shocking me that at an event that's focused on devotion to the Eucharist, we have people receiving the hand outside on the street. [00:29:02] I mean, anybody could have walked up and it was just anybody. The host could have been dropped right there on the street. [00:29:09] I mean, it just was a little bit shocking to me, to be honest. But we can't talk about that. Nobody's allowed to say that the Eucharistic Congress something like that. Nobody can make that criticism. [00:29:19] Same with receiving kneeling, altar rails, ad or antim, all these things that are seen as just weird hang ups of the trads. But they're essential. They're essential because, and here's the point. The most important point I'm trying to make here is that I do not believe the bishops, and basically most of the leaders of the Catholic Church understand how to pass on the faith. I am willing to say that most bishops want to pass on the faith, but they don't know how, because the faith isn't passed on simply by talking about it. It's passed on by osmosis, by living it, and by seeing it all around you in so many different ways and having it come at you through all your different senses, through smell, through sight, through taste, from touch, all these different things. [00:30:08] Because when the bishop saw, okay, we have a problem with belief in the real presence. Their first thought was, I mean, the congress is great, but it's like, let's get speakers to tell them they need to believe and why they need to believe. But that's not how you pass on the faith primarily. That's a part of it. It's a small part. It's primarily seen by growing up in a church that has beautiful architecture, that is fitting for a fitting location for the mass and to hold the blessed Sacrament. They have sacred music they hear each week. They see people receiving on the tongue, kneeling. They see adorant and worship. They see beautiful music that's surrounding all the celebration of the mass. That's how you pass on the faith. [00:30:52] That's how you pass on the faith. Not just having a couple events every once in a while and talking about it. So what's happening is you have this congress, which in all is a very good thing in a lot of ways. People get very enthusiastic, but then they go home to their parishes that are bland. They have bland music, bland architecture, bland artwork, bland homilies, people receiving in the hand, an army of older ladies handing out communion, all these people dressed, like, in shorts and t shirts at mass, things like that. All those things. It's not just hang ups of old fogies like me. The reason it's a hang up, I should say. It is a hang up, I guess, is because we know that the faith is passed on through osmosis, meaning it's just like it's subconsciously done. It's not just you tell somebody the faith and then they believe it. And so I really felt like that was a real problem. And let me give you an anecdote. Somebody told me, this is somebody who had a meeting, like in a small meeting group with a bishop. I won't say the bishop is or anything like that, but during this, before the Congress, but during the whole Eucharist revival. And the bishop asked, and it's one of the better bishops, I'll put it that way, ask, you know, how can we increase devotion to the blood, to the real presence, to bless his sacrament? And this guy told me what he said to him was, we need to require all priests to minister Jesus to us while we are kneeling it on the tongue. He didn't say we need traditional latin mass everywhere. We didn't say we need to like, I don't know, do something super radical. But instead he just said we need to have priests handing out, distributed communion to people who are kneeling on the tongue. What was your response to the bishop, one of the bishops, who's a better bishop, I know who it is, but I'm not going to say who it is said, well, we really can't do that because it would take away pastoral autonomy. [00:32:48] I mean, basically, that's, in so many words, that's what he said. We just can't do that. [00:32:52] Well, if we can't do that, we can't have eucharistic, a true eucharistic revival. I mean, period, end of story. If we're not willing to do the kind of hardcore changes in eucharistic piety itself, then we're not going to have a true eucharistic revival. We're going to get some people excited. You're going to have some people who grow more in their faith through it, but you're not going to have a widespread. Okay, this is a true revival happening in the church, and that's just the reality, and there's no other way to put it. And so until we're willing to address those issues, and remember, those issues were nowhere to be found at the eucharistic congress, nowhere to be mentioned. That was seen as something that if you do that, you're the bad guy who's putting a big damper on the congress, everybody being excited. You're being the negative, negative nancy there. [00:33:43] But unless we can bring these things up and talk about them, really address them directly, we're not going to have a eucharistic revival. [00:33:51] Okay? So that was the good, the bad. I want to talk about the ugly for a second. [00:33:57] Okay. I just want to note, I am a free market capitalist through and through. I totally believe in the free market, totally believe in business, I totally believe in making money and needing money to support what you do. I have no problem with Catholics who do it for a living. I mean, I am one of them, and so they need money in order to do what they do. And if people support it, that's great. I want to make that very clear. [00:34:22] That being said, there was something a bit distasteful about the over commercialization of the congress. [00:34:30] I mean, the exhibit hall was huge. Had over a thousand booths there. And just so you know, one Peter five, of which I'm kind of over one Peter five. It had a booth there, and I approved it. [00:34:41] I'm not saying the people who had booths there were bad. I'm just saying, though, there was something about it that just was a bit distasteful for me, and I don't know exactly how to express it. I just was picturing, you know, did the 1941 Eucharistic Congress have all these, you know, commercial booths? I doubt it. [00:34:58] I mean, some of them were huge as well. And so the connection was just a bit. I did not like it. I understand you have to pay the bills, and so you got to have these. And by the way, they were not cheap. Those booths were not cheap. [00:35:13] I mean, I know some people, some who did not get booze because it was just too expensive, wasn't worth it to them. [00:35:19] And then, like, you know. So let me find this page. I'm looking at the. [00:35:25] This is something where I'm going to agree with. [00:35:29] I guess I missed it. [00:35:33] Okay, here we go. So I I'm going to agree with some left Catholics here. So mark it down, put it on your calendar, let people know. Today is a day, July 23, 2024. I did this. I saw some more, let's say, progressive Catholics who were criticizing the fact that this is the National Eucharistic Congress like booklet, and it says, perpetual adoration chapel at John the Evangelist Church. Wednesday, 09:00 a.m. through Sunday, 09:00 a.m. this is the adoration I was talking about, which is very nice. It was in a beautiful church right across the street and packed all the time. Great. Right underneath it in kind of small. Princess. Sponsored by halo. [00:36:11] Halo. I said halo. Sponsored by Hallow, which I had a podcast a few months ago talking about Hallow and the problems, how that is. Basically, it's a. It's a multimillion dollar organization. It's raised a lot of venture capital, hundreds of millions of dollars through organizations that aren't even Catholic. And so there's some issues there. I just find that distasteful to have perpetual adoration chapel sponsored by a company. I get, you got to pay the bills. I get that. That, like, the church needed some reimbursement for what they were doing. And God bless the people at the church for, you know, hosting it, but having a sponsored by Hallow there, I just. I'm sorry, I'm with you. Mike Lewis and other Don Eden, I think it was, and some others who were criticizing that on Twitter. I'm with you. I just don't. I think that that's kind of an ugly part of it because we're here again. I don't have a problem with companies being there, stuff like that. But I do think it was a bit over commercialized. I think it's just the way things are, though. Like, I kind of recognize that, like I said, they wouldn't have done that in 1941, because that's not how things were back then. You can't have an event that you don't have a ton of boosts. You don't have, you know, a very much a commercialization. That's how you pay the bills, how you keep the cost down for the attendees. But it just. I think it was a little bit over the top. [00:37:32] Okay, I'm almost finished here. So those who've stuck with me, I'm going to answer. I, you know, we're getting some good comments in the live chat. I will address those here in a minute at the end. [00:37:43] I do want to address a real quick. The traditional eucharistic revival that went on kind of as a counter event on the Friday during the congress. What happened was life site news and some others. They hosted a traditional procession and traditional latin mass and some speakers at the local baseball field, the minor league team baseball field, which was right down the street from the congress. [00:38:06] It was clearly a counter event to say, okay, that's what they're doing over there, but here's what traditional Catholics should be doing. [00:38:14] I did not support that effort. [00:38:16] I love John Henry Weston. Um, and I think he's a good guy. I don't. I don't want to act like, I don't want to make it seem like I don't, but I thought. I thought this was a misstep. Uh, the main reason is father, uh, James Altman was the celebrant at the mass and gave the talk and gave a homily, and I did not attend. But I know people who did. And the fact is, is that Father Altman is likely a steady vacantist. I mean, he's a little bit squirrely on it, but he doesn't, I don't think he thinks Francis is pope. So did he even mention Francis in the canon when he prayed the mass? And if he didn't, that's not one that's in union with the Catholic Church. I mean, you know, it's, I'm not saying it's an invalid mass. It's not. But I am saying it's illicit and out of union. And so that's not something we should be encouraging. But I think my major problem, and I think an archbishop Vigano, who's obviously excommunicated now, I had a whole, I've had podcasts about that and written about that. He sent a video message to that event. And so to me that seems very much setting up a counter church to the Catholic Church. And I think that's a mistake because the fact is, is that we need to reform the Catholic Church. That means an event like the Congress. We need to have a trad presence. That's why I was happy that one Peter five went mass of the ages. Was there some other more traditional groups were there handing out flyers, talking to people about traditional pieties and things like that? That's the way it has to be done. We had a couple of traditional at masses there. I know that's not enough right now, but that's the path I think we have to go. So I just wanted to note that. [00:39:54] Yeah, I just, I don't want to talk about much more, but I was not a supporter of that effort because I think it set up, at least visually and kind of subconsciously, this idea of they're not the real church, we're the real church going on over here. And I don't think that's the way to go. I think we have to deal with the fact that the real church is in a lot of trouble right now and we need to help reform it rather than saying we're going to set something separate from it. [00:40:19] So ultimately, then we have to ask, was it a success? I had a whole podcast about this, a few, like I said over a month ago, there's a lot of post congress emotions going on right now. I've seen like some really over the top stuff. Like, you know, the church in America is going to be changed forever because of this. The church is a lie. The church is back. You know, this is going to bring about like such a radical transformation of the Catholic Church in America because it's congress. [00:40:47] Okay, let's slow our roll here a little bit. I mean, I hope that people are changed, but even, like, world Youth Day with the pope coming in 1993, didn't do what any of that, although people thought it afterwards, and it was a success in a lot of ways, I think we have to measure success by long term impact. Will we see an increase in eucharistic devotion, eucharistic piety, or will we continue to see the same decline we have now? We can't expect a single event to really change that much, even if it's done perfectly. So I feel like a little bit like the people were riding on their high emotions from it and saying, the church can change forever. That's not going to happen almost no matter what, no matter how you. How well the congress goes, it's nothing. That's really not going to happen. And like I said, because the fact that they refuse to kind of address some of the real problems when it comes to eucharistic piety in the church, I don't think it's going to have a huge long term impact. My prayers, it does definitely help some grow in their, in their devotion to the Eucharist, and I think that would be a great thing if it does. But too many people at that congress are going to return to a bland parish that doesn't really foster eucharistic devotion. And I worry for them what will happen to their own eucharistic beliefs when they go there week in, week out, rather than have their mountaintop experience at the congress. So. Okay, let me look at some of the comments, questions that were here. Okay. How many priests were there that never preach about the real presence from the pulpit? It's a good question. I think most of the priests there were pretty strong, solid. I mean, if they went to the congress, they were there to, you know, they were there because they believed in the real presence. And also, a lot of them came up to the one Peter five table. A lot of seminarians came up to mass of the ages table and talked to them about the latin mass. A number of them were at the TLM. So I do think the priests who were there were solid, you know, believers in the real presence of the Eucharist. [00:42:46] I wanted to go, but by the. This is from August TV 123. I wanted to go, but by the time I got to, like, page seven of registration, realized it would be an 18 hours day for my five year old and hardly anything for her to do there. May we'll try again when she's older. Yeah. You know, I did see some people with smaller kids, but they were basically saying it was. It was quite a sacrifice to be there. And it probably, you know, a five year old, I would not have taken my. If I had a five year old, I would not take a five year old. So I don't blame you. Okay. Consecrate soul says eucharistic revival is a band aid. Without acknowledging the lex or indie of the church, nothing will change. And that is true, I think. I wouldn't necessarily say strong as you, nothing will change. I think there could, like I said, it could be individual change, but you're essentially right. I think it is a band aid on a bullet wound. We have, you know, we're bleeding out the churches because of a, you know, so many factors. [00:43:40] And it's not like the Congress isn't doing anything, but it's not really getting to the Alexa Rendez, which is what she's mentioning. You know, he or she consecrated soul was mentioning. Think that's a great point that you're making. Also from consecrated soul. Catholics who attended TLM, 99% believe in the real presence. Catholics who tend to know Sora, 30% believe in the real presence. I think it's actually less than that. The solution is right in front of us. Okay. I think some people will immediately say that's selection effect, that basically, if you go to the latin mass, you already believe in the real presence. That's why you get a 99%. It's not the latin mass itself that's causing you to have it. That's the objection to this statement. I think there's some validity to it, but not all. First of all, why is it that those who believe in the real presence end up gravitating towards the traditional latin mass because of their belief in the real presence? They want to see it treated with the respect and reverence and adoration it deserves. So they end up leaving their bland novus ordo parish to go to traditional latin mass. Or at least they go to a much more reverent traditional novus ordo. So I don't. I do think, while you could say that it's a selection effect, but that kind of proves the point. So. [00:44:54] Okay. M five guitar one says we can't insist on kneeling it on the tongue. That is. This is an outrage. Yeah, I agree. I mean, we should be able to insist on, but that's not where we are right now. [00:45:04] John F. Kennedy. Hey, back from the dead. John F. Kennedy says that response is no surprise. They want to just keep it that way. It is. And that talking about the bishop saying they just can't change that. [00:45:14] Okay? And then finally Joseph Clark says, anglicans receiving kneeling on the tongue. It's not even Jesus. You know, there are definitely a good segment of Anglicans, especially the Anglo Catholics, who do receive. I remember this. I remember one time, years ago, I went to a family member's anglican high Anglicans. They were baptizing their kid. I went to the. And it was like their service, and it looked a lot like a traditional latin mass. And they're kneeling in on the tongue a lot. Anglicans do that. So, I mean, if they can do that, why can't we? So I think ultimately, though, I'm praying for that the Eucharistic Congress will truly change lives. I'm also praying, though, that catholic bishops in particular and priests recognize that we need to talk about the elephant in the room, which is the lack of eucharistic piety in our devotions, in the way we treat Jesus in the eucharist, in receiving the hand, not kneeling, all those different things. Until we really get to those root problems, we're not going to have a true revival. [00:46:17] Okay. I think I'm going to end it there. I appreciate everybody who joined the live chat. Until next time, everybody. God love.