The organizers of the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis have announced plans for a major pilgrimage.

The Congress, which is the culmination of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative by the U.S. bishops to inspire Eucharist belief is expected to draw some 80,000 people and have a “World Youth Day feel,” Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, told reporters at a briefing recently in Baltimore.

Cande de Leon, the revival’s chief advancement officer, said organizers “looked at how can we be as efficient as possible but still put on a world-class national eucharistic congress that will really entice people, to bring people to want to come together in solidarity.”

Some pilgrims attending the event will be arriving on a pilgrimage to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where the congress will take place starting July 17, 2024.

“We’re really modelling this on the road to Emmaus, walking with Jesus towards the experience of the breaking the bread that happens in Mass,” Cozzens said.

Pilgrims will depart from four different locations, one in the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas; in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, at the site of the tomb of Blessed Michael McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus; in San Francisco at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption; and the fourth site in Crookston.

Plans for how pilgrims will travel either by bus, car, foot or some combination have not been finalized yet.

In the Catholic Church, a eucharistic congress is a gathering of clergy, religious, and laity to bear witness to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, which is an important Roman Catholic doctrine.

Congresses bring together people from a wide area, and typically involve large open-air Masses, Eucharistic adoration (Blessed Sacrament), and other devotional ceremonies held over several days.

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