The 52nd Eucharistic Congress Sept 5-12, 2021in Budapest, Hungary has ended. I read Pope Francis’ homily at the closing Mass yearning for inspiration and encouragement on the renewal of the post-pandemic Eucharist, the essential ritual for our Christian identity and security. I was disappointed that the Pope did not address directly this renewal or the polarizing divisions in the Church about the celebration of Tridentine Latin liturgy.
Polarizing divisions are more than legitimate differences arising from time, place and culture. They are about the organization of all life around irreconcilable beliefs and vicious judgments of others. There have always been differences of opinion about how to be a disciple of Jesus; how to be the Church of Christ; and whether that Church is for the affluent and powerful of poor, oppressed and marginalized.
Challenges to renewal come from within the Church and from the restoration of the meaning of the pluraformity of religious ritual and belief in the post-pandemic global Church and world. Pope Francis rightly links them to our answer to Jesus’ question “Who do you say that I am?”