CV NEWS FEED // At a recent gathering of South Florida churches, parish leaders shared that they are working to get Catholics back to Mass post-pandemic through increasing devotion to the Eucharist and spreading word of the National Eucharistic Congress this July.
The Archdiocese of Miami featured an article from the Florida Catholic, reporting that the parishes met at a National Eucharistic Revival Summit in Plantation, Florida, on March 16. Several parish leaders expressed concern that the numbers of weekly Mass-goers have been significantly lower in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nancy McKee, a parish representative at the summit, said she’s experienced the lower Mass attendance at her church.
“I think some of the elderly are still afraid to come back, and I think the kids found other things to do, and are busy on weekends and busy with soccer games and what not, and it is hard to fit Mass [in],” McKee told the Florida Catholic.
McKee added that she hopes to hold a Eucharistic procession to “wake up” the neighborhood. She also plans to attend the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis this July, along with some 80,000 Catholics from around the country.
Another parish representative, Claudia Bailly, shared at the summit that her parish has hosted bilingual events, talks from visiting priests and outdoor Stations of the Cross during Lent. They also had a public Eucharistic procession featuring 300 people.
Parish representative Patti Foo said that her church has assembled a large group to watch the National Eucharistic Revival’s “Jesus and the Eucharist” video series.
“(We) have about 320 people and it is still growing, and is a blessing to our church,” Foo told the Florida Catholic.
Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski said in his homily during the summit’s closing Mass that Catholics receive communion “so that becoming whom we receive we go out into the world to witness to the Gospel by sharing with the world what we have received.”
“Our participation at Mass—and our reception of Holy Communion—is not something private. Holy Communion is not just about ‘me and Jesus,’” he continued. “We were baptized so that we could participate in the eucharistic banquet—and this banquet is a foretaste of the Eternal banquet of heaven when God will seat us at table with himself.”
