CV NEWS FEED // A bishop speaking at the annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast (NCPB) this week said that when Dr. Anthony Fauci described his identity as a Catholic, he “perfectly” explained the need for Eucharistic revival, and a return to joyful spiritual innocence, in America.
Bishop William Byrne of Springfield, Massachusetts, made these remarks while speaking to those attending the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. on February 8. He made the point while highlighting the importance of Eucharistic revival, and the upcoming National Eucharistic Congress in July that will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana.
There is a need for Eucharistic revival especially because many Catholics’ relationship with the Faith and with God is hurting, Byrne said.
Byrne recalled that during a 2023 December interview with BBC, Dr. Anthony Fauci told the hostess that though he identifies as Catholic, he doesn’t practice the Faith.
“I think my own personal ethics on life are I think enough to keep me going on the right path,” Fauci said, per a previous report from CatholicVote:
“And I think there are enough negative aspects about the organizational Church,” he continued. He noted that [the hostess] was “very well aware” of these things, without naming them.
“I’m not against it,” Fauci explained. “I identify myself as a Catholic. I was raised, I was baptized, I was confirmed, I was married in the Church. My children were baptized in the Church.”
“But as far as practicing it, it seems almost like a pro forma thing that I don’t really need to do.”
After Byrne quoted Fauci’s words during his address at the NCPB, he said, “So if you were wondering why we need a Eucharistic revival, Dr. Fauci explains it perfectly.”
Fauci “succinctly articulates the voice of the majority of Americans who will identify as Catholic, but do not recognize the beauty and the power of their baptism,” Byrne said:
From that gift of incorporation into the body of Christ comes a duty to live in right relationship with our creator and Redeemer. Living in right relationship with God as we all know is the only way to joy.
“The Eucharistic Revival will culminate in the Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis this summer,” Byrne said. “Be there.”
The Eucharistic Revival is crucial, Byrne argued, because it invites Catholics back into relationship with Christ through the sacraments and restores spiritual innocence through an encounter with the mercy of Jesus.
“This is not the first time that the church has called us to reflection, to renew ourselves on the great gift of the Eucharist,” Byrne added, noting that Pope St. Pius X also worked to strengthen the faithful’s love of the Eucharist.
“Known as ‘The Pope of the Eucharist,’ he is the reason why most of us began receiving the Eucharist in second grade,” Byrne said.
“It’s only as little children that we can approach the Eucharist most honestly. ‘Let the children come to me,’ is Jesus’ invitation for us to become like kids. To be silly and foolishly in love with how much our God loves us,” Byrne said.
“You see the way of Revival, I believe, is the way, in a sense, of a return to an innocence that we crave so desperately,” Byrne added.
Notably, Pius X also promoted daily reception of the Eucharist, because such reception was “means of attaining [Christian] perfection.”
Daily reception of the Eucharist is “not just the prize for those who are perfect,” Byrne said.
“And herein lies my most fundamental point,” Byrne said later in the address:
The Eucharistic Revival requires a new encounter with the mercy of Jesus Christ. That moment, in every moment of absolution [in confession] is a renewal of spiritual innocence, to allow the words of healing, to make us like children again.
He explained that the Blessed Mother Mary at the Annunciation gives “the most powerful and compelling invitation” to draw people to Jesus Christ.
Mary at the Annunciation, “renewed in mercy, filled with awe, [shows us that] this is our dignity and our destination, and destiny,” Byrne concluded:
that we as men and women of awe and wonder, celebrating with our whole being that we have been given, despite our unworthiness, the greatest gift of Jesus himself.
The post National Catholic Prayer Breakfast: Bishop Says Dr. Fauci ‘Perfectly’ Explains Need for Eucharistic Revival appeared first on CatholicVote org.