37th International Eucharistic Congress

Last updated July 24, 2019

The 37th International Eucharistic Congress that was held from 31 July to 7 August 1960 in Munich, West Germany, was the 37th edition of the International Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church.

Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, the second most populous German federal state. With a population of around 1.5 million, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, as well as the 12th-largest city in the European Union. The city's metropolitan region is home to 6 million people. Straddling the banks of the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps, it is the seat of the Bavarian administrative region of Upper Bavaria, while being the most densely populated municipality in Germany. Munich is the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area, after the Austrian capital of Vienna.

History

The site of the 37th International Eucharistic Congress was chosen by Pope Pius XII, who had previously served in Munich as a papal nuncio. Approximately 430 bishops and 28 cardinals attended at the congress, including Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston, Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York, and Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer of Chicago from the United States.

Pope Pius XII, born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, was head of the Roman Catholic Church from 2 March 1939 to his death. Before his election to the papacy, he served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio to Germany, and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with European and Latin American nations, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany.

Richard Cushing American Catholic cardinal

Richard James Cushing was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Boston from 1944 to 1970 and was made a cardinal in 1958. Cushing's main role was as fundraiser and builder of new churches, schools, and institutions. He was on good terms with practically the entire Boston elite, as he softened the traditional confrontation between the Catholic Irish and the Protestant upper-class. Cushing built useful relationships with Jews, Protestants, and institutions outside the usual Catholic community. He helped presidential candidate John F. Kennedy deflect fears of papal interference in American government if a Catholic became president. Cushing's high energy level allowed him to meet with many people all day, often giving lengthy speeches at night. Cushing was not efficient at business affairs, and when expenses built up he counted on his fund-raising skills instead of cost-cutting. Cushing, says Nasaw, was "fun-loving, informal, and outgoing. He looked rather like a tough, handsome, Irish cop and behaved more like a ward politician than a high church cleric." His major weakness in retrospect was overexpansion, adding new institutions that could not be sustained in the long run and had to be cut back by his successors.

Francis Joseph Spellman was an American bishop and cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 1939 until his death in 1967, he served as the sixth Archbishop of New York; he had previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston from 1932 through 1939. He was named a cardinal in 1946.

Events

Opening mass

The opening mass of the congress was celebrated on 31 July 1960 on the Odeonsplatz. About 80,000 people attended the mass. Cardinal Joseph Wendel adopted elements of the Liturgic Movement by celebrating the mass not with its back to the people (like in the Tridentinian Rite) but celebrating it looking toward the people and by reading the Gospel not in Latin but in German.^[1]

The Odeonsplatz is a large square in central Munich which was developed in the early 19th century by Leo von Klenze and is at the southern end of the Ludwigstraße, developed at the same time. The square is named for the former concert hall, the Odeon, on its northwestern side. The name Odeonsplatz has come to be extended to the parvis (forecourt) of the Residenz, in front of the Theatine Church and terminated by the Feldherrnhalle, which lies to the south of it. The square was the scene of a fatal gun battle which ended the march on the Feldherrnhalle during the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.

Joseph Wendel was a German Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1952 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII.

Church of atonement near the Dachau

During the congress, the foundation stone for a "church of atonement" near the former Dachau concentration camp was laid.

Dachau concentration camp Nazi concentration camp in Germany before and during World War II

Dachau concentration camp was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in 1933, intended to hold political prisoners. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. Opened by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, German and Austrian criminals, and eventually foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. The camps were liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945.

Mass on the Theresienwiese

The congress was closed by celebrating a Statio Orbis Mass on the Theresienwiese, a large square in Munich on which also the Oktoberfest takes place every year.

Theresienwiese is an open space in the Munich borough of Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt. It serves as the official ground of the Munich Oktoberfest. A space of 420,000 square metres (4,500,000 sq ft), it is bordered in the west by the Ruhmeshalle and the Bavaria statue, symbolizing the State of Bavaria, and in the east by Esperantoplatz, a square named for the international language Esperanto. There, a memorial commemorates the victims of the 1980 Oktoberfest bombing. Bavariaring, an orbital road, provides access to visiting traffic. In the north the towers of St. Paul are visible.

Oktoberfest is the world's largest Volksfest. Held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, it is a 16- to 18-day folk festival running from mid or late September to the first weekend in October, with more than six million people from around the world attending the event every year. Locally, it is often called the Wiesn, after the colloquial name for the fairgrounds, Theresa's meadows (Theresienwiese). The Oktoberfest is an important part of Bavarian culture, having been held since the year 1810. Other cities across the world also hold Oktoberfest celebrations that are modeled after the original Munich event.

Fimcap

In the course of the 1960 Eucharistic Congress, Catholic youth organizations from different countries met in Munich and held a first delegate conference that prepared the foundation of the Fimcap (International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements).^[2]

The FIMCAP, which is short for Fédération Internationale des Mouvements Catholiques d’Action Paroissiale, is an umbrella organization for Catholic youth organizations. Its 36 member organizations are based in 33 countries. The FIMCAP was founded in 1962 and is recognised as an official Catholic organization by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. FIMCAP is also a full member of the European Youth Forum.

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References

↑ Fellner, Michael. "Eucharistischer Weltkongress in München, 31. Juli bis 7. August 1960". Historisches Lexikon Bayerns ("Historical Encyclopedia of Bavaria").
↑ "International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements". Pontifical Council for the Laity . 2015. Retrieved July 1, 2016.

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[1] Fellner, Michael. "Eucharistischer Weltkongress in München, 31. Juli bis 7. August 1960". Historisches Lexikon Bayerns ("Historical Encyclopedia of Bavaria").

[2] "International Federation of Catholic Parochial Youth Movements". Pontifical Council for the Laity . 2015. Retrieved July 1, 2016.