Vatican City, May 29, 2005 / 22:00 pm
On his first official apostolic trip outside of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Bari yesterday for the closing of Italy’s 24th Eucharistic Congress where he stressed that Christians need the Eucharist and the Sunday obligation to “find the energy necessary for the path they must follow.”
In his homily for the closing ceremonies of the congress, themed, ‘Without Sundays, We Cannot Live,’ the Holy Father told the crowd of 200,000 that, "We need this Bread in order to cope with the fatigue and weariness of the journey. Sunday, the day of the Lord, is the right occasion to draw strength from Him Who is the Lord of life.”
He added that, “The precept of the feast day is not, then, simply an obligation imposed from outside…[but] a need for Christians.”
Pope Benedict concelebrated Mass with prelates of the Italian Episcopal Conference yesterday morning in the "Marisabella" esplanade in the Southern Italian city.