The 50th International Eucharistic Congress began in Dublin last Sunday, in a very different Ireland from the one where the 31st such congress was held 80 years ago. There is a positive report about the opening of the current congress by Mary O'Regan in the Catholic Herald.
Some time ago a friend at home asked me to make a short video about the then forthcoming Congress. What you see above is what came out, a little different to what I had been asked to do. I later did the latter and posted it last week.
What came out in this video was mostly about the faith of my Dad and the impact the 1932 Congress had on it. I never asked him about the Congress, though he often spoke about it, and I never asked him about his faith. But his faith still continues to form me nearly 25 years after his death.
May the current Congress not only strengthen and help renew the faith of Irish Catholics of today but may it influence the missionary faith of generations to come as the Congress 80 years ago continues to do with me through the faith of my Dad who died in 1987.
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Fr Seàn: My mother remembers the 1932 Congress very well even though she was only four at the time. She remembers my grandfather and the male neighbours hanging bunting in the Papal colours across their street in Ceannt Fort (then known as McCaffrey's Estate). She also recalls her older sister (sadly no longer with us) receiving her First Holy Communion during the Congress. Incidentally, this month's "Africa" magazine has some interesting reminiscences by Kiltegan priests of the 1932 Eucharistic Congress.
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