INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) -- Catholics who will not be among the more than 40,000 people attending the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-21 will be able to watch or listen to key portions of the event, including the evening revival sessions with popular Catholic speakers and musicians, including Bishop Robert E. Barron, Father Mike Schmitz and Matt Maher.
The Eternal Word Television Network and Relevant Radio plan to broadcast parts of the National Eucharistic Congress, and the National Eucharistic Congress will also livestream from Lucas Oil Stadium, which will hold the event's large-group gatherings.
The congress is a highlight of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative of the U.S. bishops that began in 2022 to inspire greater understanding of and love for Jesus in the Eucharist. Held in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium and the adjacent Indiana Convention Center, the congress aims to bring together tens of thousands of Catholics for liturgies, devotions and well-known Catholic speakers. The congress's full schedule is available at www.eucharisticcongress.org/schedule.
EWTN plans to offer live coverage of the congress's opening events, beginning 6 p.m. ET July 17. Coverage continues July 18-20 at 8 a.m. ET with Mass, an impact session (10:30 a.m.), breakout session (1:30 p.m.) and the evening revival session (6:30 p.m.). July 20 coverage also includes the congress's Eucharistic procession in downtown Indianapolis, beginning at 2:45 p.m.
Its July 18 1:30 p.m. breakout session broadcast will cover "Transforming the World: The Eucharist and Evangelization," presented by EWTN and featuring speakers Montse Alvarado, Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, Michael O'Neill, Father Leo Patalinghug, Father Robert Spitzer, Michael Warsaw, Johnnette Williams, Father John Paul Mary, Father Mark Mary, Father Joseph Mary Wolfe.
On Sunday, July 21, EWTN plans to broadcast the congress's final revival session at 8:30 a.m., followed by its closing Mass, beginning at 10 a.m.
The Alabama-based Catholic television network also plans to rebroadcast the congress's impact sessions at 3 a.m. ET July 19-21 and include other Eucharist-related programming during breaks in its congress broadcast. EWTN's congress schedule is available at www.ewtn.com/eucharist. Its website includes the option to watch or listen live.
Catholics who want to follow the network's Spanish-language coverage can go to www.ewtn.com/eucaristia. The network said this coverage will be customized for Spanish-speaking Catholics and will include livestreaming of the congress' opening ceremony, morning Masses in Spanish, live coverage of the Encuentro impact sessions, as well as live coverage of the nightly revival sessions. And, though the original programming is in English, Alvarado, the president and COO of EWTN, who is one of the daily revival session emcees, will welcome attendees to the stadium in Spanish those nights, according to an email from the network. EWTN will also offer Spanish-language coverage of the Eucharistic procession on Saturday, July 20, and the closing Mass on Sunday.
Additionally, the station's TV page lists each day's coverage in the time zone of the person accessing the site, and includes the times when the Masses will be encored. EWTN Radio Católica Mundial will offer audio coverage of the Congress.
Relevant Radio is offering a live broadcast of the congress July 17-21. Wednesday's pre-event coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET with "The Drew Mariani Show" and continues at 6:15 p.m. Glen Lewerenz and Brooke Taylor in Lucas Oil Stadium, followed by the Family Rosary Across America with Father Rocky Hoffman at 6:30 p.m. and the evening revival session at 7 p.m.
From July 18-21, Relevant Radio -- an Illinois-based Catholic radio network -- will broadcast the Family Rosary Across America from the congress at 8 a.m. ET., with an encore broadcast at 6:30 p.m.
Its July 18-20 broadcasts will include 8:30 a.m. ET Mass, 10:45 a.m. impact session and 7 p.m. revival session. Afternoon programming includes live broadcasts of its popular programming, including "The Patrick Madrid Show," "The Drew Mariani Show," "Trending with Timmerie" and "Marriage Unhindered."
On July 19, Relevant Radio will also broadcast "Relevant Radio Presents" 2-4 p.m. ET, which will feature Mariani leading a Chaplet of Divine Mercy in the presence of a first-class relic of St. Faustina. Father Hoffman will share stories of Eucharistic miracles from his popular videos, and Madrid will provide answers "to the five most important questions surrounding the Holy Eucharist today," according to an event description.
On July 21, Relevant Radio will broadcast the final revival session at 8:30 a.m. followed by the closing Mass at 10 a.m. Relevant Radio's full congress schedule is available at relevantradio.com/nec, with an option to listen live on its website.
EWTN and Relevant Radio are major sponsors of the National Eucharistic Congress.
The National Eucharistic Congress Inc. will also livestream congress events at www.eucharisticcongress.org. That livestreaming will include the main events in Lucas Oil Stadium: morning Mass, the Encounter impact session and daily revival session.
The congress's closing Mass will be celebrated by Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization's Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, and Pope Francis' special envoy to the congress.
The congress's final day includes a "great commissioning," which organizers compare to "a new Pentecost," where attendees "will be sent out to joyfully proclaim the Gospel in every corner of our nation," according to congress organizers.
That commissioning is not just for congress attendees, but for the wider church, Tim Glemkowski, CEO of National Eucharistic Congress Inc., told OSV News in June.
"The people who are gathered there at the congress are gathering on behalf of the entire people of God, the church in the United States," he said. "The commissioning that happens at the congress is for the whole church in the United States -- everybody who tunes in on EWTN or Relevant Radio, who just hears about the congress, all of us. We're inviting a new Pentecost, to say, 'Lord, we want to return to you with our whole hearts so that you might make us fruitful in our life as a church.'"
Like the congress's attendees, Catholics watching or listening to the National Eucharistic Congress are able to receive Pope Francis' apostolic blessing with a plenary indulgence.
The Holy See's decree for the papal blessing with plenary indulgence for the National Eucharistic Congress empowers a church prelate to impart it, following Mass, to the faithful participating in the congress. To receive it, Catholics must be truly repentant of their sins, be motivated by charity, and meet the usual conditions of sacramental confession, Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father.
However, Catholics who "due to reasonable circumstances and with pious intention" cannot be physically at the congress may also receive the indulgence if they have participated in Mass and received the blessing through media communications, according to the decree.
According to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "Indulgences are the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains the indulgence under prescribed conditions for either himself or the departed. Indulgences are granted through the ministry of the Church which, as the dispenser of the grace of redemption, distributes the treasury of the merits of Christ and the Saints."
The congress kicks off the National Eucharistic Revival's third and final year, the Year of Mission, where Catholics are invited to accompany Catholics no longer practicing the faith back to the church, and to grow more deeply in their understanding of what the Eucharist requires of their own lives.
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