Michael Kelly
Parish collections to fund last year’s International Eucharistic Congress raised more than €4m to cover the event, final accounts show.
Figures, which have just been finalised and lodged with the Companies Registration Office, show that overall the Church spent €9.5m on the lead-up to and during the week-long event.
Collections
Funds for the Congress came from four national collections held in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The sum collected from parishioners came to €4,274,332, or 45% of the income received. A further 25% came from other donors in Ireland and elsewhere, from religious orders and bishops’ conferences worldwide.
The remaining 30% came from operational income generated during the Congress.
Bishop John Fleming, who heads the Church’s finance committee, said the hierarchy was “particularly grateful to the people of every parish throughout the country who contributed so generously to the congress over a four year period.
Solidarity
“Donations from individuals, organisations, and religious, as well as from Catholic bishops’ conferences worldwide, were an expression of solidarity which was both humbling and greatly appreciated,” he said.
Dr Fleming paid tribute to the 1,700 volunteers who gave of their time to ensure the congress was a success, in particular those who provided family-based accommodation, meals and transport for over 200 pilgrims from poorer countries.
Daily attendances at the congress in the RDS amounted to between 10,000 and 16,000 pilgrims while 65,000 participated in the closing liturgy at Croke Park.
