Advocate of the National Eucharistic Congress promotes the presence of Christ | Tech Reddy

FUTURE HEIGHTS — When he and his wife were first married, Cande de Leon recalled inviting other couples to their small apartment in Southern California for Thanksgiving dinner and watching the guests’ seven-year-old son pray before the meal. as if witnessing some ritual or song.

“It was his first encounter with Jesus and he was in a stranger’s house and he was scared, I will never forget that because I remember that not everyone knows Jesus and I think we should remember that,” de León told The Tablet. “The biggest challenge will continue and that’s it.” [do] Do we continue to bring people to Jesus?’ “

He is referring to the work of the National Eucharistic Congress, which recently joined the role of chief progressive. He spends the next two years and beyond trying to answer the question of how to bring people to Jesus, convert them, and eventually become missionary disciples.

The National Eucharistic Revival is a three-year initiative sponsored by the U.S. bishops to renew the Church by reviving “a living relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist,” as the initiative’s website says. It was created, in part, in response to a 2019 Pew Research Center survey that found only 31% of Catholics believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The initiative started in June. Earlier this month, it launched a “leader’s playbook” to help community leaders navigate the ongoing formative period until May 2024. It will culminate in July 2024 with the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis with over 80,000 attendees.

This will be the first National Eucharistic Congress in the United States since 1942. De Leon doesn’t think things will stop there. In fact, he sees the congress as a springboard for the fulfillment of a common mission.

“I don’t think anyone thinks that we will solve the problem in two years. “We are trying to light the fire and excite the church so we don’t have to wait another 82 years for another congress,” he said. “This congress is not a magic bullet. There is an intentionality and a focus on the Eucharist.”

Until then, de Leon sees her role as chief promotion officer as understanding how to engage and engage people in the initiative’s mission. He admitted that given the amount of time before the event, “it’s definitely a very difficult and dangerous thing to do,” adding that he should definitely call on the Holy Spirit to guide him.

He started the role earlier this month, so his focus now is to meet with the initiative’s strategic leaders and partners to see what the vision is and how they plan to move forward.

His dream is to strengthen relationships through prayer, leadership and sacrificial gifts, and to focus on meeting people on a personal level.

“We must try to change hearts and minds en masse,” de Leon said. “We have to try to do it with the person next to us. This is where we should start.”

He joins the National Eucharistic Revival from the Diocese of Phoenix, where he spent the past seven years as the first executive director of the diocese’s Office of Mission Development. Prior to his time in Phoenix, de Leon began his career in church development for the Diocese of Corpus Christi and served four years in the United States Marine Corps prior to that.

Shortly after serving, and partly through witnessing his wife’s conversion to Catholicism, he realized that his passion was to serve God’s mission. He says it’s “extremely overwhelming” to think he’s now pursuing those passions on a national level.

“I’m trying not to think about anything else because I know it’s only by his grace that I’ve been given the opportunity to help in this way,” de Leon said. “I think about all the people I’m on a mission with and that’s what I try to focus on, and I’m giving it my all.”