Indianapolis (OSV News) –At the end of the final Mass of the National Eucharistic Convention, Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, asked the audience of 60,000 gathered at Lucas Oil Stadium on July 21 to identify one person in their life who they would intentionally evangelize with a love for the Eucharist and the Church that had been strengthened during the five days of the convention.
“Brothers and sisters, we believe that God wants to renew his Church and that this renewal will come through you, and in renewing his Church, God will renew the world,” said Bishop Cozzens, president of the National Eucharistic Congress.
“What we receive as a gift, we must give as a gift,” he said. “This year we have called you to ‘walk’ with one person. What would happen if each of you thought of one person you know who is currently straying from the faith, prayed for them, befriended them, and invited them to take a step closer to Jesus and His Church?”
“What if 70 million Catholics did that?” he asked, referring to the estimated number of Catholics in the United States. “So my question is: Would you do that? Would you do that?”
The crowd cheered. Bishop Cozzens introduced the audience to the U.S. bishops’ “Walk with One” initiative, launched in conjunction with the conference, to provide resources to help Catholics “in spiritual communion” and evangelize effectively through existing relationships.
The effort is a key component of the U.S. bishops’ “Year of Mission,” the third and final year of their national Eucharistic revival initiative, which begins in 2022 and includes a conference from July 17-21 and a national Eucharistic pilgrimage preceding it.
Standing at the back of the stage after the final Mass of the conference, Bishop Cozzens told OSV News that the final Mass of the conference was “a commission, really an invitation, to send people out to work on the missionary year of the Eucharist Resurrection.”
Bishop Cozzens said after the conference, attendees felt prepared to evangelize.
“I asked them if they would be willing to ‘walk with me’ and they said yes,” he said.
After Mass that day, Norma Williamson and Pearl Nelson, parishioners of St. Fabian Parish in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, said they had lunch with two of their congressional colleagues and discussed what it means to “walk in unity.”
Nelson said she plans to reach out to families who have left the Catholic faith and share some of what she learned at the conference.
By organizing groups to watch the conference’s lively talks, Williamson hoped to generate interest and enthusiasm for Communion and evangelism in his parish.
Nelson said she took to heart the words of Sister of Life Bethany Madonna, who spoke at Lucas Oil Stadium on the first night of the conference: “Instead of just saying, ‘I want you to come to church with me,’ invite people over for lunch or coffee and have a casual conversation to get to know them better and pick up their ideas.”
Nelson also wondered whether using hymns and worship songs in parish youth events could attract younger believers. He and Williamson were amazed to see youth and young adults running up to the stage on the Friday and Saturday nights of the conference and waving their hands to the worship music — something they had never seen in a Catholic church.
“They were so excited,” Nelson said, “It felt so good. … They felt so safe and they ran up to the front of the stage and worshipped. It was amazing to behold. It was so exhilarating.”
Derek Nguyen, 16, was one of an estimated 5,000 conference attendees under the age of 18. He attended with his youth group from Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Karns, Utah, which specifically serves Vietnamese Catholics in Salt Lake City.
Nguyen said he has internalized his faith through casual conversations with other attendees about Communion and the Catholic Church, and he has shared that excitement with the young parishioners he helps catechize. He said he doesn’t want them to think of Communion and faith formation as “routine.”
“This isn’t just a class,” he said. “This is reality. This is where you come from. This is who you are.”
For Sean Strassma, a 34-year-old youth pastor from Georgia, evangelism was part of his experience working as a graphics operator on the congressional production team.
Strasma said organizers had hired “the best and brightest” people to handle graphics, lighting and sound during the games, but he said only a small proportion of the more than 80 members of the production team were Catholic; many were evangelical Protestants and accustomed to working at non-denominational events.
“The students had a lot of questions about what Communion is, what worship is, the elements of the liturgy, which was really wonderful,” said Stasma, who converted to Catholicism from Evangelical Pentecostalism as an adult. “It was just explaining to them that if you accept the premise that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then a lot of our theology about the elements of the liturgy comes from there.”
He said one of the things he learned from the experience was to reconsider how he approached his Protestant family about his Catholic faith.
Stasma also hopes the conference will serve as evidence to parents that youth conferences are valuable for teens, because while many of the youth attendees have probably attended SEEK, NCYC or the Steubenville conference, “a lot of the adults have never had an experience like this, and it was really great to see them attend a conference like this for the first time.”
