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Vatican exhibit displays eucharistic miracles from throughout the ages
By Andrew Junker, The Catholic Sun
October 18, 2007
For centuries, praying the rosary has invited Catholics to meditate on scenes from Jesus’ life.
At this year’s Rosary Sunday, taking place Oct. 28 at the Phoenix Convention Center, the connection between the rosary and Christ will be even more evident through a photographic display of eucharistic miracles from around the world.
The Vatican International Exhibition of “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World” is a series of about 140 panels cataloguing Church-approved eucharistic miracles. The panels include photos of many of the miracles along with historical descriptions of the events.
Local Catholic Joe Haley was responsible for bringing the exhibition to Arizona, where it has traveled across the diocese to various parishes for about eight months.
“We’re really pleased,” Haley said of the demand for the exhibit in the diocese. He noted that the exhibit has been booked at different locations for the next month and a half.
“Everywhere that it has been, the people in the parish have been just very much impressed by it,” Haley said. “The whole idea is to really let our people know that throughout the 2,000 years in the Mass and perpetual adoration, this is truly, truly our Lord Jesus.”
One of the more famous miracles highlighted by the exhibit took place in Lanciano, Italy, in 750. A monk in that town who was celebrating Mass doubted the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
As he said the words of consecration, the host he was holding physically turned into flesh, and the wine into blood.
These relics survived the passage of time, the panel explains, and underwent scientific examination in the 1970s. Scientists determined that the “miraculous flesh” — which had been perfectly preserved without any embalming — and the “miraculous blood” were really human flesh and blood.
“These dramatic events over time can give you confidence,” Haley said.
And the attractive manner in which these events are displayed in the exhibit further draw people in.
“The idea is that beauty attracts to truth,” Haley said. “These things are beautiful to look at. It shows pictorially what really happens in the Mass.”
The local Knights of Columbus approached Haley about bringing the exhibition to Rosary Sunday where an estimated 6,000 Catholics will be able to view it.
“I think my favorite thing [about the exhibit] is the response of the people as they come,” Haley said, “and their deepening understanding of what we have in front of us every day.”
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