“We need you; we need your testimony of faith,” he said. “We need your openness to communicate to the people surrounding the event.”

The cardinal said many of the events at the congress would be held in public areas of Quebec, where people who choose not to attend the congress would be able to watch.

“If they see the joy and the spirit of openness in the congress,” they might be impressed with the Catholic Church, the cardinal told CNS after a May 30 speech to journalists attending the Catholic Media Convention in Toronto.

He told the journalists to “let the world know that people still hunger today for the bread that gives life, hope and true freedom,” and he called the congress “a countersign to a culture that lives on fast food and quick fixes.”

The congress’ opening ceremony includes a performance by Gen Verde, a multi-artistic group featuring women of 13 different nationalities, as well as a Mass at the coliseum in ExpoCite, the exhibition complex where most of the congress events and the plenary sessions will be held.

The week closes with a special Mass on the Plains of Abraham, the site of a decisive battle in 1759 between British and French troops that led to the fall of New France. Pope Benedict XVI, whom organizers had lobbied to attend the congress, will give the homily live from Rome via satellite.

Each day, catechesis will focus on various aspects of the Eucharist. Church leaders from Africa, South and North America, Asia and Europe will be among those leading the sessions.

Ouellet told the journalists the catechesis June 20 will highlight two specific testimonies: “that of spouses who form their family on the basis of sacramental marriage, becoming therefore a domestic church; and that of consecrated life under all its forms.”

Congress organizers say they expect 15,000 people to participate in a eucharistic procession through the streets of Quebec the evening of June 19. The procession will be led by Ouellet and Slovakian Cardinal Jozef Tomko, president of the Vatican’s office for organizing the international event from 2001 to 2007 and Pope Benedict’s envoy to the congress.

A new media portal for the archdiocese of Quebec — www.ecdq.tv — will broadcast many of the events live in French, English and Spanish.

For more information, see www.cei2008.ca. And for daily coverage of the Eucharistic Congress, see The Catholic Register’s web site (www.catholicregister.org) daily beginning June 16 for reports from Joseph Sinasac and CCN’s Deborah Gyapong. Also, see our daily blog on the congress.