At the meeting they looked back together at the lessons learnt from and the results of the Congress of 2016, but the main focus was on the preparations for the Congress in Hungary due in two years time. Archbishop Péter Erdő and Kornél Fábry, Secretary General of the International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) Budapest gave the plenary of about one hundred members an account of the preparations. The Pontifical Committee of International Eucharistic Congresses was founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1881. Its purpose is to "to make ever better known, loved and served, Our Lord Jesus Christ in his Eucharistic Mystery, as center of the life of the Church and of its mission for the salvation of the world". To that end it promotes the organization of Eucharistic Congresses and the dissemination of Eucharistic worship. The annual meeting of the Committee and the National Delegates began on the morning of 8th November, and it concluded at noon on 10th November, when Pope Francis received in audience the participants of the meeting.
Following the words of welcome of Archbishop Piero Marini, President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, José Serofia Palma, Archbishop of Cebu City (Philippines), hosting the Congress in 2016 talked about the fruit and the effect of the event two years ago. In the afternoon the participants of the meeting heard the annual reports of National Delegates, and the presentation of the famous Italian Professor of Biblical Studies, Bruna Costacurta, currently teaching at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, on the motive of Eucharist and thirst.
