Church Body Seeks Inclusion of Poor in 51st IEC

The Solidarity Communion Committee (SCC) of the 51st International Eucharistic Congress (IEC) is seeking the participation of the poor in the international religious event to be held in Cebu from Jan. 24 to 31.

Fr. Carmelo O. Diola, SCC chairman, said this responds to one of the aims of the IEC, which is to “draw attention to the social dimension of the Eucharist.”

He said without this dimension that is intrinsic to the Eucharist, the Holy Mass becomes an empty ritual.

The SCC is one of the 35 committees created for the IEC.

“We are quietly preparing 500 street and very poor children for first communion on Jan. 30, 2016. About 50 of them come from seven dioceses outside Cebu,” Diola said.

These poor children will form part of some 5,000 children who will take their first communion on Jan. 30.

“Our present Cebu network consists of eight parishes and 14 groups. Most meet weekly and feed children. Several have been reaching out to the poor even before the IEC,” Diola said.

What is new, he said, is the eight-session catechesis on the Eucharist and the individual profiles on the candidates for the first communion.

“We are seeing beautiful changes. In at least three groups of about 100 children, for instance, most children have gone back to school,” Diola said.

The SCC has also conducted a parish-poor survey so that the parish team would meet the poor face-to-face, know who they are, where they live and what they need.

The survey serves as basis for an Archdiocesan-wide corporal and spiritual works of mercy to be implemented during the IEC.

In 2015, several parishes reached out to the poor in an organized manner.

“We can do something. There is hope,” Diola said. (PNA) SCS/EB/SSC