51st IEC Organizers Invite 1,000 Families To ‘Hope Banquet’ on Jan. 23

Organizers of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) have invited more than 1,000 poor families to a “Table of Hope Banquet” on Saturday, Jan. 23, a day before the international religious event starts.

Fr. Joseph Larida, one of the members of the IEC’s local organizing committee, said the hope banquet will serve as a spiritual and social gathering between organizers of the 51st IEC and the poor.

Larida said the banquet was an initiative of the 51st IEC’s solidarity and communion committee led by Fr. Carmelo Diola and the Archdiocese of Vancouver, Canada.

Larida said the banquet would be done in four batches, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Pope John XXIII Seminary near the Eucharistic Pavilion on Pope John Paul II Ave., Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.

Larida said that invited to the banquet were 500 street children who would receive their first communion on Jan. 30.

Organizers of the 51st IEC said that 14 parishes had committed to organize their own parish encounters with foreign delegates.

Msgr. Danny Sanico, chairman of the IEC’s committee on parish encounters, said the 14 parishes would cater to different foreign groups, who hold masses in their own languages.(PNA) RMA/EB/EDS