Holy Land pilgrims come to Ireland for IEC

“We are really delighted to be in Ireland, as representatives of the Holy Land.”

Bishop William Shomali, an auxiliary bishop of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, is leading a group of pilgrims from the Holy Land who have come Ireland to take part in the International Eucharistic Congress. “Our group comes from Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and also from the diaspora in the USA . . . So we really represent the Holy Land in its different rites, liturgies. We have Maronites, Greek Catholics, Latins, even some Arab Greek Orthodox.”

The pilgrims from the Holy Land, said Bishop Shomali, came for many reasons: “first of all, to represent the Holy Land.” The Holy Land welcomes many pilgrims each year, and Bishop Shomali said he saw that the Irish, too, are happy to receive the thousands of people who have journeyed to Ireland to attend the Congress.

He said his group also wanted to show their solidarity with the Church in Ireland, which, in recent years has seen a decline in religious practice. “We came [in] solidarity, really to pray with this suffering Church, in order to overcome its crisis.”

Finally, said Bishop Shomali, “We came to deepen our faith in the Eucharist, the Eucharist as presence, as donation, as sacrifice of Christ and of the Church, Eucharist as communion with Christ and with each other.” Although the pilgrims to Dublin are a witness of faith in and love of the Holy Eucharist, they have also come to learn: “So really we feel we have to learn here, not only to be witnesses of something… but we want to learn more about how to live the Eucharist on a daily basis.”

Listen to the complete interview with Bishop William Shomali: