The 52nd International Eucharistic Congress opened in Budapest, with Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, presiding at the opening Mass. Pope Francis is scheduled to preside at the closing Mass on September 12. The event was postponed from last year because of the Covid epidemic.

On September 6, Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church told participants: “The Catholics and the Orthodox are not united in the Eucharist, but they are united in the conviction that in the Eucharistic bread and wine after their consecration we have not just the symbolic presence of Christ, but his full and real presence.”