Encounter with the Sacramental Jesus

With the opening words of His Eminence, Cardinal Péter Erdő today, on 26^th November the Pastoral Conference has started in the St. Adalbert Centre in Esztergom. The Cardinal emphasised that the meeting both mentally and spiritually will prepare the International Eucharistic Congress of Budapest in 2020.

“These three days offer immersion on the one hand, and on the other it wants to give an outlook and encouragement to the practical life, to the understanding of the mission of the Church in today’s world. The participants will have the opportunity not just to talk about their relationship with the sacramental Jesus, but through the Holy Mass and adoration they can also experience it.”

The Cardinal has reminisced on last year’s theological conference in Esztergom, the lectures of which have also been published in a book since then. “Even the title of the conference has made its mark in which spirit we are preparing for this great event as it says, Binds us, rather than divides us! – it says on the title page. The great lecturers from the Jewish communities, the Eastern Churches and protestant Churches contributed that we may understand and feel its whole historical depth in all that our Catholic faith adores and celebrates under the name of Eucharist” – said Péter Erdő.

The participants of the event research both the theoretical and practical relations of the Church and Eucharist, but other interesting topics will be laid down on the table, such as the question of the gluten-freeness of the Host.

Among the lecturers you can find the Archbishops Balázs Bábel and György Udvardy along with the Greek Catholic Bishop Ábel Szocska. The lecturer from abroad is Professor Robert E. Somerville, from the Columbia University in the City of New York, who held a lecture on the topic of the relationship between Church and the Eucharist, focusing on the 11^th – 12^th centuries, which was such an age when the Catholic-Protestant division had not divided Western Christianity.

The conference of sixteen lectures will conclude on Thursday in Esztergom.

For the opening words of Cardinal Péter Erdő click here.