«L’Eucaristia centro e forma di vita della Chiesa»,

Abstract

The theme of the relationship between the Eucharist and the Church represented a significant junction in Martini’s pastoral action, especially in the years preceding and following the celebration of the twentieth National Eucharistic Congress (CEN), held in Milan in May 1983; in those years the various pastoral programs were found to revolve around the letter Attirerò tutti a me, in fact dedicated to the Eucharist as a reality to be put «at the heart of the community and its mission». This article reconstructs the way in which Martini, after encountering the theme in a way that he himself described as «occasional», found the «form» of the Church and sought the ways to decline this principle in concrete pastoral action.