The Holy See Press Office reported on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, that Pope Francis appointed the Revered Corrado Maggioni President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. To date, Father Maggioni has been Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Father Corrado Maggioni
According to “Vatican News,” Father Corrado, 65, is a native of Brembate di Sopra, Bergamo, Italy. He has worked at the service of the Holy See for over 30 years. His appointment as President of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses is the latest stage of a journey that began in 1990 when he entered the Vatican as an official of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
A few years later, on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, he took on the responsibility of the Central Committee’s Liturgical Office. In particular, Father Maggioni was in charge of the evening prayer in Saint Peter’s Square that, around 7:00 pm, invited pilgrims of the Holy Year to end the Jubilee day, as well as to enter and leave Rome, by pausing to pray in the site of the martyrdom of the Prince of the Apostles.
In 2007, he obtained a Doctorate in Liturgy after studying at Saint Anselm’s Pontifical Liturgical Institute and became Head of the Office of the Dicastery for Divine Worship. Then, in 2013, he was appointed Consultor of the Pope’s Office of Liturgical Celebrations. Just over a year later, the Pope appointed him on November 5, 2014, Under-Secretary of that Dicastery.
Father Maggioni is a member of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, Professor at Saint Anselm’s Pontifical Liturgical Institute, and at the Marianum Pontifical Faculty of Theology.
Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses
The Holy See states that the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses was constituted and erected in 1879 by Pope Leo XIII, with a Statute approved in 1986 by Pope John Paul II. It is housed in the Saint Calixtus Palace in Vatican City.
The end and competencies of the Committee have been, since the beginning, to make Our Lord Jesus Christ better known, loved, and served in His Eucharistic Mystery, center of the life and mission of the Church for the salvation of the world. Therefore, it promotes the periodic preparation and holding of International Eucharistic Congresses.
In order to ensure adequate pastoral preparation for these Congresses, the Committee requests the Episcopal Conferences and the Synodal Patriarchates to appoint National Delegates, who are in charge of preparing the Congresses and, when necessary, constitute — with the approval and collaboration of the local Ecclesiastical Authority –, National Eucharistic Committees, and foster and give preference to initiatives that, in harmony with the Church’s current dispositions are geared to increase understanding of the Eucharistic Mystery and the participation of the faithful in all its aspects, from the celebration of the Eucharist to its worship extra missam, to its radiation in personal and social life.
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
