Eucharistic Congress

This weekend we’ll be attending the Diocese of Charlotte’s annual Eucharistic Congress, in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. Last year’s keynote speaker was Rwandan genocide survivor Immaculee Ilibagiza, but  this year it’s a  hometown lineup:  President Bill Thierfelder and Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey College and Monastery, respectively;  plus Patrick Madrid of the Envoy Institute, based at Belmont Abbey.

Last year’s Congress was memorable for many reasons, not least of which was that one of our party, riding down the escalator in the Charlotte Convention Center, managed to get one of his Crocs stuck in the moving-stair mechanism. He escaped with all toes intact, for which we are very very very grateful, especially after hearing approximately three hundred Croc-escalator horror stories from people who happened by as the security team were trying to remove this Croc from that escalator (they couldn’t, and it was out of commission for the entire weekend, so if you were frustrated in your attempts to transition from the upper level to the lower of the Charlotte Convention Center last year, it was our fault and we are sorry).

So, no Crocs this year. The Croco-Woco Kid has to wear his First Communion suit anyway, assuming we can still wedge him into it — it was none too large when he made his First Communion back in May, and that was months ago — to march in the Eucharistic Procession with all the other First Communicants of 2010.

Here are some highlights from the past two years:

Okay, so it’s not exactly Rome, but it’s a great event in our diocese. More to come.