Instead, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops put its time, effort and money into a national programme called the Eucharistic Revival.

It was not impossible to do both programmes, but as any pastor will tell you, doing two major programmes at once in a parish is very difficult.

It is hard enough to do just one programme while keeping all the other parish activities rolling along.

With a little bit of effort, the two programmes could have complemented each other instead of being in conflict. After all, synodality makes for a better Eucharist, and the Eucharist creates and nourishes synodality.

Both are about communion, participation and mission.

"In its broadest sense," according to the synthesis report from the October 2023 meeting of the synod, "synodality can be understood as Christians walking in communion with Christ toward the Kingdom along with the whole of humanity."

"Its orientation is towards mission," says the report, "and its practice involves gathering in assembly at each level of ecclesial life.

"It involves reciprocal listening, dialogue, community discernment, and creation of consensus as an expression that renders Christ present in the Holy Spirit, each taking decisions in accordance with their responsibilities."

A central part of the parish and diocesan phase of the synodal process is "conversation in the Spirit," in which participants in groups of 10 listen to each other about issues facing the Church.

The process builds communion and encourages participation in the mission of Jesus.

It is easy to see how this process could translate into participation in the Eucharist, the sacrament of Communion that empowers the Christian community to participate in the mission of Jesus of spreading the good news of the Father's love and our responsibility to love all our brothers and sisters.

But the Eucharistic Revival has a completely different focus.

It is more about Benediction, where the consecrated bread is worshipped, than the Eucharist, where the community is fed.

The impetus for the Eucharistic Revival came from the bishops' fear that the faithful no longer believe in the real presence in the Eucharist.

In fact, many Catholics do not even understand what the Church teaches about it.

Pew Research

According to the Pew Research Center, "More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45 percent) do not know that their Church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolise but actually become the body and blood of Christ."

Pew found that Catholics believed that the bread and wine were only symbols of Christ's presence.

"Nearly seven-in-ten Catholics (69 percent) say they personally believe that during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine used in Communion ‘are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ,'" according to Pew.

"Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31 percent) say they believe that ‘during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.'"

Others, including the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, have challenged Pew's research, but Pew's findings caused a panic among the bishops that resulted in them budgeting $28 million for the Eucharistic Revival, although the budget was later reduced to $14 million.

Benediction vs Eucharist

From its inception, the Eucharistic Revival was about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

The revival included Eucharistic processions and Benediction in parishes and dioceses and culminates with a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis from July 17-21, where thousands from all over the country are expected to attend.

But, I repeat, the revival is more about Benediction than the Eucharist.

Benediction is all about worshipping Jesus.

The Eucharist is about worshipping the Father and transforming the community into the Body of Christ.

Christ is not made present on the altar table so that we can worship him. He is present so that we can eat him and become what we eat.

The revival focuses on individual rather than community.

• It focuses on me and Jesus rather than the communion of Christians.
• It focuses on what happens to bread and wine rather than what happens to the community.
• It focuses on personal experience rather than mission.

Let me make clear. There is nothing wrong with Benediction, but it is not the Eucharist.

Jesus did not institute the Eucharist at the Last Supper so that we could worship him.

His focus was always on the Father, not himself.

If we listen to the Eucharistic prayer as recited by the priest for the community, we give praise and thanks to the Father for all he has done for us, especially for sending Jesus with the good news of the Father's love and compassion for us.

We pray not to Jesus but "through him, with him and in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit" to the Father.

We remember Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

During the Eucharistic prayer we ask for the Spirit to transform us into the body of Christ so that we can continue his mission of bringing justice, peace and love to the world.

Synodality is about communion, participation and mission; so, too, is the Eucharist.

Too bad the Eucharistic Revival is not.

• First published in RNS
• Thomas J. Reese, SJ is an American Catholic Jesuit priest, author, and journalist. He is a senior analyst at Religion News Service

Looking at them from a distance, not as an active participant, but knowing personally or professionally many of the speakers, has been an instructive experience which says a lot about the very different trajectories that two important churches in global Catholicism are taking.

The Italian gathering

On July 3-7, the Italian northeastern port city of Trieste hosted the "Social Weeks of Italian Catholics."

The first edition took place in Pistoia (Tuscany) in 1907, one of the landmark events in the history of the Catholic social movement, which responded to the call of Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum (1891) to engage in social and economic questions created by modernity as well as capitalism and Communism.

They were organised by lay Catholics in collaboration with the bishops under the Vatican's watch and celebrated every few years in the last century, with two long suspensions.

These were during the Fascist regime and in the 1970s-1980s before they resumed in 1991, also thanks to the impulse given by St. John Paul II for a renewed energetic engagement of the institutional church in the public square.

At the heart of democracy

This year's meeting was titled "At the heart of democracy" ("Al cuore della democrazia") and presented a series of talks, seminars, and workshops on the role and responsibilities of Catholics in the present crisis of our democratic systems.

The president of the Italian bishops' conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, Italian President Sergio Mattarella, and Pope Francis were all in Trieste and spoke on the value of democracy, constitutionalism, and the Catholic view of migrants and refugees.

Public sessions were held by recognized experts in ecology, education, the justice system, artificial Intelligence, poverty, and the welfare state.

But there were also biblical lectures, and every day started with the celebration of Mass.

The congress concluded July 7 with a Eucharistic concelebration in the city's main square in the Pope's presence. The event kept Francis' emphasis on social Catholicism very much in mind.

Earlier in the day, the Pope delivered a powerful speech on the relationship between the church in Italy and democracy, in which he said:

"In Italy, the democratic system matured after World War II, also thanks to the decisive contribution of Catholics. You can be proud of this history."

Francis also reminded Italian Catholics of the political nature of their faith:

"As Catholics, we cannot be satisfied with a marginal or private faith. This means not so much being listened to but, above all, having the courage to make proposals for justice and peace in the public debate.

"We have something to say but not to defend privileges. No. We must be a voice; a voice that denounces and proposes in an often voiceless society where too many have no voice."

The US gathering

A different kind of Catholicism is on display at the July 17-21 National Eucharistic Congress organised by the US bishops' conference in Indianapolis.

As part of the "Eucharistic Revival" that started in 2022, it is also a response to the reported crisis of faith in the "real presence," but also a follow-up to the failed attempt (thwarted by the Vatican in 2021) by some hardline US bishops to politicise the Eucharist.

The Indianapolis congress represents a very different style of ecclesial event: not only because of the exorbitant costs to participate in a series of sessions that include professionally staged business-like performances.

The programme is a different kind of Catholic show that includes exhibits on the National Shroud of Turin and Eucharistic miracles, prayers for healing, worship with a Christian singer and songwriter in a rock-concert-like gathering, and Eucharistic adoration.

It concludes on the last day with "Family Rosary Across America" and a closing liturgy with the papal delegate, to whom Francis sent a letter in Latin praising the event.

A church open to modernity

Both these two national Catholic events speak about the culture and spirituality of many church members, myself included.

Born in an environment influenced by Vatican II Catholicism that tended to be allergic to traditional devotions, I rediscovered Eucharistic spirituality during my years as an extraordinary Eucharistic minister while serving as a youth minister.

In each and every local church, one finds a lot of both Trieste and Indianapolis in different mixtures: social and devotional Catholicism.

However, these two events also testify to the different directions that institutional Catholicism is taking in two important countries to shape the global church.

Trieste connects the roots of the Church's social doctrine of the late 19th century with 21st-century challenges: democratic backsliding, new forms of work and social relations, the environmental crisis, and AI.

It's a Church open to modernity, in a cultural posture that benefits from both Catholic tradition and the Enlightenment, proud of its contribution to the post-war reconstruction of Europe, and still optimistic about the collaboration with non-Catholic and non-religious fellow human beings.

It tries to feed and serve the souls and bodies of Catholics through the mind.

Indianapolis is more about the heart

It's a mix between traditional Catholic devotionalism and the present mix between dominance of emotions and the media (both old and new).

It's part of the "clash of emotions," a further stage, now at the intra-American level, of what political scientist Samuel Huntington called 30 years ago "the clash of civilizations" in the post-Cold War world.

But it's also another stage in the Americanisation of US Catholicism, a later borrowing phase from American Protestant Evangelicalism's focus on the heart and sense of re-enchantment for those alienated by modernity.

It encourages experience over reflective thought, the movements of the heart over the life of the mind.

In Indianapolis, the liturgical and devotional emphasis is much stronger, not only because of the very nature of the event, a Eucharistic congress.

It's a mix of ultra- or post-modern and anti-modern ritual culture, mixing Christian rock and the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass (diplomatically called in the programme "Mass According to the 1962 Missal").

It's deeply political by staying away from political issues that divide U.S. Catholics concerning the common good.

Its devotionalism reflects an anti-intellectualism that feeds on the estrangement between devotional Catholicism and the academic elites (including Catholic theologians).

It magnifies the divorce between high culture and organised religion, which has become increasingly attracted to and changed by the media and social media.

It is also an event in which the U.S. bishops invested a lot (not just money) as leaders of a Church that is less affected by Europe because of a lack of clerical and religious vocations.

It is by no means untouched by secularisation.

Still, U.S. Catholicism can count on a spiritual thirst and religious anxiety that is more difficult to find in Europe — at least in the Catholic Church.

It is difficult in the United States to talk about the Eucharistic Revival and the National Eucharistic Congress.

That's because any criticism is seen as criticism of the Eucharist or of Jesus himself — almost by wrapping into the Body of Christ a "culture war" issue such as access to the sacrament of Catholic Democrats such as President Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi. But this discussion is for another time.

The big question for Catholicism at both the universal and local levels is how to make them learn the best that each has to offer and collaborate in mission and evangelisation.

What is worth pointing out at this moment, a crossroads both for global Catholicism (the second assembly of the Synod on synodality of October 2024) and the United States (the presidential election of November 5, 2024, where Catholics play an important role), is how different two key churches in the Catholic communion can be.

Both are part of the European-Western world; both have inherited the social and liturgical tradition developed by papal and episcopal teaching; both have been active in the reception and implementation of the Second Vatican Council.

But looking at Trieste and Indianapolis, the impression is of two different churches going in different directions.

It's more than two different ecclesiastical-institutional systems, different clerical cultures, and different bishops' conferences.

Trieste and Indianapolis represent the ideal types of two different ecclesial DNAs, reacting differently to the signs of the times.

The big question for Catholics at both the universal and local levels is how to make them learn the best each has to offer and collaborate in mission and evangelisation.

• Massimo Faggioli is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and a columnist for La Croix International.

Instead, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops put its time, effort and money into a national programme called the Eucharistic Revival.

Eucharistic Revival

It was not impossible to do both programmes, but as any pastor will tell you, doing two major programmes at once in a parish is very difficult. It is hard enough to do just one program while keeping all the other parish activities rolling along.

With a little bit of effort, the two programmes could have complemented each other instead of being in conflict.

After all, synodality makes for a better Eucharist, and the Eucharist creates and nourishes synodality.

Both are about communion, participation and mission.

"In its broadest sense," according to the synthesis report from the October 2023 meeting of the synod, "synodality can be understood as Christians walking in communion with Christ toward the Kingdom along with the whole of humanity."

"Its orientation is towards mission," says the report, "and its practice involves gathering in assembly at each level of ecclesial life.

It involves reciprocal listening, dialogue, community discernment, and creation of consensus as an expression that renders Christ present in the Holy Spirit, each taking decisions in accordance with their responsibilities."

Revival is different from synodality

A central part of the parish and diocesan phase of the synodal process is "conversation in the Spirit".

In this, participants in groups of ten listen to each other about issues facing the Church. The process builds communion and encourages participation in the mission of Jesus.

It is easy to see how this process could translate into participation in the Eucharist, the sacrament of Communion that empowers the Christian community to participate in the mission of Jesus of spreading the good news of the Father's love and our responsibility to love all our brothers and sisters.

But the Eucharistic Revival has a completely different focus. It is more about Benediction, where the consecrated bread is worshipped, than the Eucharist, where the community is fed.

The impetus for the Eucharistic Revival came from the bishops' fear that the faithful no longer believe in the real presence in the Eucharist.

In fact, many Catholics do not even understand what the Church teaches about it.

Research findings

According to the Pew Research Center, "More than four-in-ten Catholics in the United States (45 percent) do not know that their Church teaches that the bread and wine used in Communion do not merely symbolise but actually become the body and blood of Christ."

Pew found that Catholics believed that the bread and wine were only symbols of Christ's presence.

"Nearly seven-in-ten Catholics (69 percent) say they personally believe that during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine used in Communion ‘are symbols of the body and blood of Jesus Christ,'" according to Pew.

"Just one-third of U.S. Catholics (31 percent) say they believe that ‘during Catholic Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus.'"

Others, including the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, have challenged Pew's research.

But Pew's findings caused a panic among the bishops that resulted in them budgeting $28 million for the Eucharistic Revival, although the budget was later reduced to $14 million.

From its inception, the Eucharistic Revival was about the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

The revival included Eucharistic processions and Benediction in parishes and dioceses and culminates with a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis from July 17-21, where thousands from all over the country are expected to attend.

But, I repeat, the revival is more about Benediction than the Eucharist.

Benediction is not Eucharist

Benediction is all about worshipping Jesus.

The Eucharist is about worshipping the Father and transforming the community into the Body of Christ. Christ is not made present on the altar table so that we can worship him. He is present so that we can eat him and become what we eat.

The revival focuses on individual rather than community.

It focuses on me and Jesus rather than the communion of Christians. It focuses on what happens to bread and wine rather than what happens to the community. It focuses on personal experience rather than mission.

Let me make clear.

There is nothing wrong with Benediction, but it is not the Eucharist. Jesus did not institute the Eucharist at the Last Supper so that we could worship him. His focus was always on the Father, not himself.

If we listen to the Eucharistic prayer as recited by the priest for the community, we give praise and thanks to the Father for all he has done for us, especially for sending Jesus with the good news of the Father's love and compassion for us.

We pray not to Jesus but "through him, with him and in him in the unity of the Holy Spirit" to the Father.

We remember Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

During the Eucharistic prayer we ask for the Spirit to transform us into the body of Christ so that we can continue his mission of bringing justice, peace and love to the world.

Synodality is about communion, participation and mission; so, too, is the Eucharist. Too bad the Eucharistic Revival is not.

• First published in RNS
• The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest, is a Senior Analyst at RNS.

"I can see the spirit at work in the people in their response at a parish level. They are very keen to lift up the saints, to celebrate the Church," said Bishop Richard Umbers from the Archdiocese of Sydney.

Umbers says the growth may be due to a number of things, including social media and improving logistics, like making buses available to parishioners.

However, more than a spike in attendance, he also has a heightened desire among Australians to profess their faith publicly, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic.

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