Source: The Washington Post
On October 4, 2000, The Washington Post reported that "about 22,000 area Roman Catholics are expected to attend the Washington Archdiocese's Eucharistic Congress, a four-day celebration of the Catholic faith starting tomorrow at the Washington Convention Center. A year in the planning, the congress is the archdiocese's most important Jubilee Year 2000 event. Based on registration, church officials predict that the congress's concluding Mass on Sunday--celebrated by Cardinal James A. Hickey--will be the largest gathering of Catholics since the 1979 papal visit, which drew an estimated 175,000. 'We're hoping to have a grand gathering of our family of faith around the Lord, who is truly present in the Eucharist,' said the archdiocese's auxiliary bishop William E. Lori."