53rd International Eucharistic Congress in Quito: Monsignor Borgonovo speaks on the family and the Church

The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress opened on September 8 in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, during which the 150th anniversary of the consecration of the South American country to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was also celebrated.

Pope Francis inaugurated proceedings, which has as its theme “Brotherhood to heal the world”, by sending a video message in Spanish in which he underlined how, with communion, it is possible to “rebel” and create a “new, more just, more human world”. The Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Monsignor Graziano Borgonovo, also participated in the event as a speaker with a contribution entitled: “The family in the light of the Eucharist, school of fraternity”.

“What is the first place, the first environment in which those distinctive aspects of what it means to be human are learned? The first place in which a human being is taught to make the terms ‘self-giving, memory, service, and joy’ his own? I have no doubt in providing an answer: it is in the family,” said the Undersecretary, recalling the speech that the Holy Father had addressed to the faithful during his pastoral trip to Ecuador on 8 July 2015, at the Santuario de la Virgen del Quinche. On that occasion he had addressed the country’s nuns, priests, and seminarians, outlining in an exemplary manner the coordinates of Christian life: gratuity, memory and memory of gratuity, service and joy.

“Truly the Church and the family, the family of the Church and the Church of families are the ‘immense Eucharistic tent under which we are all invited to come together in a sign of fraternity redeemed and healed by the total love of Christ’, as the Basic Document (n.10) recalls,” concluded Monsignor Borgonovo. The Congress closed on 15 September 2024.