Preparing to deliver a major address at the International Eucharistic Congress later this month in Dublin, Christendom College President Dr. Timothy O'Donnell gave Zenit an interview in which O'Donnell talked about the problems the Church is facing, especially in light of the abuse scandal, and why Catholics must focus on the Holy Eucharist and the priesthood. "The Church in America has been wounded, as has the Church in Ireland; but there is no healing apart from Christ, and to go back to Christ, especially looking at his sacrificial death and how he chooses to give himself to us with such humility, he shows us the way back to healing," O'Donnell said. O'Donnell gave Zenit a sneak preview of what he plans to say:

Certainly, the priesthood is something that is so important for the Church, for the Catholic community. The problem I think is that the image of the priesthood has been really obscured. What I am going to try and do, therefore, is go back and try to ground the priestly identity in the person of Christ. The actual title of my talk is “Priest after His Heart.” I will be trying to relate how, in order to understand the priesthood, we have to understand Christ, we have to understand his heart, his person. So what I am going to do is really try to go back to the Gospels and take certain passages in the Gospel that reveal the priestly sentiments of his heart, to try and hit on those. What is difficult is that you have to know who your audience is. Who is going to come to this? Is it going to be priests? Is it going to be lay people? It will probably be some type of mixture I would imagine. So what I really want to do is try to uphold, obviously, the dignity and the beauty of the priesthood, but at the same time, since a lot of lay people will be there, ground it really in the Heart of Christ.

This is the fiftieth International Eucharistic Congress and the second held in Dublin (the first Dublin Congress was in 1932). It will take place June 10-17. The theme for this year is "The Eucharist: Union With Christ and With One Another." You can read more at Zenit.

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