Cardinal William Keeler will be watching Rome's October Eucharistic Synod carefully.

He believes Pope John Paul II ignited a Catholic resurgence when he declared the Year of the Eucharist.

Cardinal Keeler, the archbishop of Baltimore, longs for a day when most Catholics return to Sunday Mass and understand that Jesus is fully present in the Eucharist.

To promote the Eucharist the cardinal proposed the just-released book titled Real People, Real Presence: Ordinary Catholics on the Extraordinary Power of the Eucharist. Written by the faithful of his flock, Cardinal Keeler said the book may change lives. He spoke from Baltimore with Register correspondent Wayne Laugesen.

How did this book come about, and how much of it did you write?

I didn't write anything, other than the introduction. Ordinary people from the archdiocese wrote it. What inspired it was the Year of the Eucharist. It was the idea of a person on my staff — Tom Sonni, director of development for the archdiocese — and I instantly said this is a great idea and we should make use of it. I thought it was something that would lift up the Blessed Sacrament in a blessed way.

At what point did you come to understand that the Eucharist is Jesus?

About the time of my first Communion, I think. I knew it was a special food, and I knew it was life-giving. But there was gradual growth and appreciation. In my own introduction, I talk about how deeply impressed I was by Pope John Paul II whenever we visited him in Rome. After a meal he would go into the chapel and pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. He would kneel there, and those of us who were his guests for lunch or supper would kneel as well. I had this sense that we were at the center of the universe, very close to God.

When he came here to Baltimore [1995], and he made the Sign of the Cross at Camden Yards, it seems to me that in an instant he changed that sports stadium into an outdoor cathedral. The people were so attentive, so responsive, so much drawn into the prayer of the moment. The producer for the TV coverage that day was Jewish, and she said she had never seen people more visibly affected than what she saw at that Mass. So when the suggestion was made to publish stories of the Eucharist, I thought immediately of the Holy Father's devotion to the Eucharist.

You mentioned your first Communion. What did it feel like when you received for the first time?

I don't have detailed memories, but I do remember feeling that it was a very special moment and I think the celebration that surrounded it helped to make it a very special time.

What are some stories that immediately come to mind when I mention the book eal People, Real Presence?

This one grandmother wrote about her ministry with the sick and the homebound, and how the Eucharist affects them. She talks about a homebound woman who says, “I love you, because you bring me Jesus.” She writes about members of a nursing home, in varying stages of dementia. Some don't remember their own names, yet they utter the familiar responses when praying the rote prayers of the Eucharist. After receiving the sacrament they are able to thank God for the blessing. She writes about the reverence of an old woman who insists upon being properly dressed and brushed before receiving God.

Were you surprised by the stories that came in?

I was happily surprised, because they were so deep.

How did you solicit these stories?

We advertised in parish bulletins and in our weekly newspaper, The Catholic Review. We received many more stories than could go in the book, so we had to select and choose and we tried to put the most moving stories into the book.

We've all seen the surveys that say a vast majority of Catholics believe the Eucharist is symbolic. Do you think it's true that so many Catholics think that way?

I don't think it's true of people who come to church regularly, and a lot of it depends on how the question is put. When I see the silence and respect that I see in church, especially surrounding consecration and at the time of Communion, it's obvious that people understand the Real Presence. There's enormous silence, and respect, and reverence. People who don't come to church, those who have been educated by the media, have a different take and that's just one of the challenges we face today.

It seems most in the media don't understand the Real Presence at all. Why is that?

That's absolutely true. I really don't know. I was interviewed a number of times in Rome during the conclave, and I remember a reporter from CNN citing surveys about this topic. I said the surveys show that people are giving back to you what they have gotten from you. Because so many people don't attend Mass, we have a great number of Catholics learning about their faith from the media. They're learning from the same media that missed entirely the way in which Pope John Paul II connected with young people, and the effect that connection will have on the world. That connection has not been reported adequately.

The mainstream media say he connected, mysteriously, in the way a rock star connects. Have you heard that?

Yes, but there was a spiritual element to it and that did not get reported. I was in Denver [1992], and I saw the difference between the way some major political figures were received by the crowd and the way the Holy Father was received. It was an explosion of love by the crowd that's just hard to describe.

What do you think explains this special connection?

Faith. People saw that he was the successor of the Apostle Peter.

What will be the ultimate effect of John Paul II declaring the Year of Eucharist?

There's no question that the Year of the Eucharist has already had a deepening effect — causing people to reflect upon what the Eucharist means in our lives. That's a great gift, I believe.

Will the Year of the Eucharist possibly reverse the widespread notion that the Eucharist is symbolic?

I believe it could. But right now, many of our young people are missing formation. They're not even getting adequate information in preparation for their first Communion. There is a lot of work to be done.

So you think a lot of kids are taking first Communion who don't fully understand what it is?

They don't fully understand and we can pray they're going to understand better as time goes on.

What can we do from a practical standpoint?

We just have to keep trying. Here in Baltimore, each year some 7,000 to 8,000 young people of high school age go through retreat programs. They come out just as excited about the faith as what you see at World Youth Day. I think the more of that kind of thing we can have in all parts of our world, the better off we'll be.

What do you think Pope Benedict XVI will do for the Eucharist?

He's going to give us a good example. When our young people went to World Youth Day in Paris, I suggested we spend time in front of the Sacrament simply praying and adoring, and we did a lot of that. We did it again this year, and every year in Baltimore on the Palm Sunday vigil we have a procession through the streets. This year we added adoration. Progress can be made.

Wayne Laugesen writes from Boulder, Colorado.