College Helps Get Its Students, Faculty and Alums to the National Eucharistic Congress

Question: Why would a college in Kansas spend significant money to get as many of its students, faculty, staff and alumni as possible to a major Eucharistic event?

Answer: Because the college wants to put its money behind the belief that only Jesus Christ, truly present in the Eucharist, can truly Transform Culture in America.

Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, is a premier sponsor of the National Eucharistic Congress, coming to Indianapolis for four days starting July 17, 2024.

The college is counting down the days to the event, and so made a major announcement on July 17, 2023: The college is offering significant discounts to the Benedictine College community to attend the Congress. At this once-in-a-lifetime event, attendees will experience world-class teaching, powerful worship, joy-filled fellowship, and practical guidance for sharing the love of Jesus in their communities.

Tens of thousands of Catholics from all over the U.S. will gather in Indianapolis for a transformative encounter with the Real Presence of Jesus.

Led by Benedictine College alumnus Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who is serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors of National Eucharistic Congress, Inc., the entire event will be an experience of prayer: a liturgical act offering the Catholic Church — those in attendance in Indianapolis as well as across the country — to the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.

“We want to start a fire, not a program,” stated Bishop Cozzens.

The college is in the midst of its plan to form students who will Transform Culturen America through their commitment to intellectual, personal, and spiritual greatness and is hoping to stoke that fire by applying each aspect of its mission:

• Community: In addition to sponsoring the National Eucharistic Congress, the college will serve as a stopping place on the National Eucharistic Procession;
• Faith: The college offers perpetual Eucharistic adoration on campus, offers prayer aids to the public and plans all new buildings such that the tower over the St. Benedict’s Abbey Eucharistic chapel will always be the highest point on campus.
• Scholarship: The college is teaching about the Real Presence with a national Symposium and by providing important Eucharistic theological books including St. John Paul’s Ecclesia Eucharistia and Brant Pitre’s Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist to all students.

“Nothing is more important than the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist,” Benedictine College President Stephen D. Minnis said. “We are determined to make that message very clear.”