The Eucharistic Congress Bell

In this photo released by Vatican paper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI rings the bell of the Eucharistic Congress scheduled for June 10 to 17, 2012 in Dublin, Ireland, prior to the pontiff weekly general audience, at the Vatican Wednesday, March 14, 2012. ~ AP Photo

The Eucharistic Congress Bell is on pilgrimage to parishes in dioceses throughout Ireland. The Bell rings across Ireland as a call to bring God's people together. During the Bell pilgrimage, schools and volunteers in communities and parishes respond to the call to prayer and participate in ceremonies and processions.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin accompanied the International Eucharistic Congress Bell to the Vatican on Wednesday, saying “there is a real sense of renewal in the Church in Ireland” in the lead up to this June event.

Recalling the Eucharistic Congress that took place in Dublin back in 1932, the Archbishop said that gathering marked a moment of reconciliation for people who had recently emerged from a bitter civil war. In a similar way, he said, the year’s event aims to be “a moment of healing within the Irish Church” after these “very difficult times”.

Archbishop Martin noted that the pilgrimage of the bell – a symbol of gathering people in and stressing their communion with Christ and with one another – comes exactly two years after Pope Benedict’s letter to Irish Catholics on March 19th 2010 at the height of the sexual abuse crisis. The pilgrimage of the bell started in Dublin one year ago, he stresssed, "so these are two processes that belong together”. (Vatican Radio)