The first two days of presentations of the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress in Quito, contrasted the hardships currently being faced by many people in different parts of the world with the prophetic responses that the church can provide in times of crisis.
Speakers at the 8-15 September event, coming from different nations, shared their views on the tough realities of millions of people nowadays, from the innocent victims of the war in Ukraine to the immigrant families who take treacherous journeys from South America to the United States and end up finding more exclusion and violence.
In his presentation, Rodrigo Guerra, lay secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, summarised most of the current “wounds of the world,” as the organisers of the congress have been calling the social problems that can be healed by the sense of fraternity provided by the Eucharist.
The trauma of many immigrant families was discussed—one that may be comparable to traumatic experiences of the victims of the Russian invasion to Ukraine, vividly described by Auxiliary Bishop Hryhoriy Komar of Catholic Eparchy of Sambir-Drohobych.
Congress organisers said that wounds of the world can be healed by “prophets” whom “in the hardest moments God sends to us,” such as contemporary saints and outspoken leaders of the church who fight for their people.