Fraternity essential for a more humane world – Pope Francis

In his message to the participants of this year’s International Eucharistic Congress, Pope Francis emphasized how fraternity is needed in building a more just and humane world.

The Holy Father’s video message was shown to over 20,000 attendees of the event in Quito, Ecuador on Sunday, reflecting on the theme, “Fraternity to Heal the World.”

The pope echoed Saint Augustine’s teachings that “just as bread cannot be made with just a single grain, so we too must walk together, because “one loaf, one body, is what we all are, many though we be.”

He also revisited Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s words, saying: “A profound brotherhood, that is born of the union with God, that is born from letting ourselves be ground, like grain, in order to become bread, the body of Christ, thus participating fully in the Eucharist and in the assembly of saints.”

Moreover, Pope Francis remembered the holy life of Venerable Sister Angela Maria of the Heart of Jesus, a German Trinitarian Sister of Valencia who died in the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps during the Second World War.

The pope highlighted how she remained a devout Catholic and invited her relatives “to rebel through Communion” during a time when evil triumphed in the world.

“For her, to urge frequent communion… meant finding in the Eucharist a bond that strengthens the vigor of the Church herself, a bond that strengthens this vigor between her members and with God, and for her, it meant to ‘organize’ the fabric of a resistance that the enemy cannot unravel, because it does not respond to a human plan,” said Pope Francis.

The Holy Father called on the faithful to recuperate the radical fraternity with God and between men and women.

“We are one, in the single Lord of our life; we are one in a way that we are not able to understand fully, but what we do understand is that only in this unity can we serve the world and heal it,” he said.

The 53rd International Eucharistic Congress coincides with the 150th anniversary of Ecuador’s consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

During the Opening Mass on September 8, more than 1,500 children received the Sacrament of the First Communion.

Among the event’s speakers are Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Vicar General of His Holiness for Vatican City;
Msgr. Graziano Borgonovo, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization; and Argentine singer- songwriter Pablo Martinez.

The IEC will conclude on September 15 with a Closing Mass presided over by Cardinal Baltazar Porras, papal legate.