Pope expected to visit Australia for 2028 International Eucharistic Congress, bishop says

SYDNEY (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV is expected to visit Australia in 2028 to preside over the International Eucharistic Congress, an auxiliary bishop of Sydney has announced.

Bishop Richard Umbers, CEO of the eucharistic congress organizing committee, told a Feb. 9 press conference at St. Mary’s Cathedral, “Archbishop Anthony Fisher was in Rome speaking to Pope Leo. He said to him, ‘Look, we’re counting down the days for you to come to the International Eucharistic Congress, which will be held here in 2028,’ and the pope said, ‘Well, it’s still a way off, but I’ll be there.'”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese invited Pope Leo to visit Sydney for the congress on the day after the pope’s installation last year, in accordance with diplomatic protocol.

In 2028, Australia will mark the 100th anniversary of its first International Eucharistic Congress, held in Melbourne, the same city that hosted the quadrennial event in 1973 with two saints in attendance — Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, now St. John Paul II, and Mother Teresa, now St. Teresa of Kolkata.

With the massive event more than two years away, many logistical issues still need to be resolved, but Bishop Umbers highlighted the congress’ main features.

“The congress itself will be run for a week. There’ll be an opening Mass,” Umbers said.

“And then one would expect, if the pope is able to make it, which we really hope he does, in the latter part of that week he will be involved in a very, very long and large, Eucharistic procession, which will be very exciting,” he added.

“And then there will be a final Mass. As we’ve seen with previous papal visits, it also brings people all over the world.”

Bishop Umbers was reluctant to forecast attendance at the final Mass, but he said, “Given that there are 5 million Catholics in Australia, we expect hundreds of thousands to attend the Mass and to be at the conference and many to come from overseas.”

A visit in 2028 will be the fifth time that a reigning pope has visited Australia. St. Paul VI was the first in 1970. St. John Paul visited twice — in 1986 and in 1995, when he beatified Mother Mary MacKillop. Pope Benedict XVI came to Sydney for World Youth Day in 2008. All of them offered Mass at Randwick Racecourse. In 2008, 400,000 attended the Mass, the largest crowd for any event in Australia’s history.

Of course, the most important metrics are the spiritual ones, Bishop Umbers emphasized, “We hope that Eucharist28 will invigorate people in their faith, to appreciate the presence of Jesus among us, and through spiritual conversion, return to their parish renewed and on fire with love for the Lord.”

In practical terms, this hopefully means a substantial uptick in Sunday Mass attendance. “All Catholics are invited to Sunday Mass,” Bishop Umbers told The Catholic Weekly, Sydney’s archdiocesan newspaper. “And we would love to see more. We would love to see everyone in church. All are welcome!”

The presence of Pope Leo is expected to make the event even more attractive. “It will be a tremendous boost to the faith of the faithful and to seekers,” Bishop Umbers said, “because the opportunity it presents to hear directly from the successor of Peter will move hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit.”

As Father Robert Prevost, the pope visited Australia several times. “He knows that it is a place where there are many Catholics from communities that represent the whole world,” said Bishop Umbers. “And this will be an opportunity to speak to the world of the saving message of Jesus Christ.”

While dates have yet to be announced, there has been some suggestion that Eucharist28 could coincide with the Rugby League Grand Final.

But Bishop Umbers is optimistic that this logistical wrinkle can be ironed out. “Sydney is a great international city, and will do everything we can to facilitate attendance at the Mass. A lot of Catholics love their footy (rugby) — and if the Doggies were to make it into the Grand Final, I could have trouble trying to get some of my priests along to the final Mass,” he quipped.

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