Ecuador guarantees security for Eucharistic Congress, archbishop says

By Justin McLellan, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The security situation in Ecuador continues to be a concern for the team organizing the 53rd International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Quito in September, but organizers said the country's government has ensured the event will go off without a hitch.

The escalations of violence in Ecuador "have worried us and continue to worry us," Archbishop Alfredo José Espinoza Mateus of Quito told reporters at the Vatican May 20. However, he said the Ecuadorian government "guaranteed" church leaders in the country that rigorous security measures will be in place during the week-long congress.

In January Ecuador saw a spike of violence at the hands of organized crime groups, prompting President Daniel Noboa to declare a state of emergency that lasted three months before he declared that an internal armed conflict was taking place in the country. Most of the violence has occurred in the port city of Guayaquil and not in the capital, Quito.

"We are taking all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of all participants in the International Eucharistic Congress," the archbishop said.

Pope Francis met with Noboa May 13, and Archbishop Espinoza said the president formally invited the pope to visit Ecuador.

Although Pope Francis is scheduled to travel to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore Sept. 2-13, the archbishop said the invitation for the pope to travel to Quito for the Sept. 8-15 congress still stands. An Ecuadorian delegation present at the Vatican, including the mayor of Quito, was expected to greet the pope May 22 and renew the invitation.

The congress, the theme for which is "Fraternity to Save the World," will be the fifth International Eucharistic Congress held in Latin America since the celebration's origin in 1881. It will coincide with the 150th anniversary of Ecuador's consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1874 -- which made it the first nation in the world to be consecrated to the heart of Jesus.

"Fraternity is the challenge of our age," said Father Juan Carlos Garzón, secretary-general of the International Eucharistic Congress. He noted the many wounds that fracture humanity and place people "in opposition and rivalry," such as war, violence, neglect of the unborn and elderly and the destruction of the planet.

Yet "the Eucharist makes us sit at the same table of the body and blood of Christ, as children of the same father and therefore brothers and sisters among us," he said. But the bonds of fraternity forged by the Eucharist do not remain only among those seated at the table, rather "Eucharistic love overflows to heal the wounds of the world."

Archbishop Espinoza told Catholic News Service after the news conference that the significance of an International Eucharistic Congress returning to Latin America lies in the region's social engagement.

"Latin American theology is very much marked by sociology as well, so it is a different way of seeing and contemplating reality and of doing theology," he told CNS. "It is a more concrete commitment to the people."

The archbishop said that the theme of the congress and leading a Eucharistic life "bring us to project our lives, our faith, into concrete actions."