THE ITALIAN CHURCH ON THE WAY TO THE JUBILEE

The 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, which the Holy Father attended in its final days, was the last great gathering of the Italian Church before the celebration of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. So, as John Paul II himself said in presenting the event during the Angelus of 21 September, it was an "extraordinary spiritual event", and an "important stage" in the appointment towards the end of the millennium

For the Italian Church, now on the eve of the new liturgical year, it was also the conclusion of the first year of immediate preparation for the jubilee event, in which meditation on the figure of Christ has been the focus of attention everywhere. The theme of the Congress - "Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, yesterday, today and for ever" - was a call for conversion and for the active presence of the Church in societies at the end of the millennium. During the nine days of the Congress, in which a harmonious balance was reached between its spiritual, liturgical and religious contents, great emphasis was placed on eucharistic adoration and a renewed evangelizing endeavour.

The young people who participated at the concert in "their vigil as they wait" were the same who later, after spending the night outdoors, assisted at the Pope's solemn concelebration with the Italian Bishops, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, Archbishop of Bologna, and the papal Legate, Card. Camillo Ruini. Many of them had been present at another mass event, which marked the beginning of the congress days: the procession from the city's twelve gates to St Petronius' Square, the heart of Bolognese Catholicism and for nine days the eucharistic heart of the whole of Italy.

The Eucharist was the focal point of the Pope's discourses. He did not fail to stress the social implications of the living presence of Christ among men. This is true all the more so for Italy, "today marked by so many social and spiritual challenges", and stricken by an earthquake precisely in its artistic centre during the days of the Congress in Bologna. «A people who wanted to confine within church walls this daily "gift of God" - John Paul II said - would certainly be all the poorer». Great attention, in the Pope's discourses, to young people, the family, the task of evangelization. It was also significant that he chose to celebrate in Bologna the beatification of Bartholomew Mary Dal Monte, a Bolognese priest who died at the age of only 52 in 1778, famous in his life for his preaching in many parishes of the Bolognese Archdiocese and in 63 Italian dioceses. On the eve of the 1775 Holy Year, in his preaching the Blessed insisted especially on spiritual preparation for the Jubilee, which makes his figure very relevant to the present day.