Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Guatemala City (Fides Service) – DAY ONE, Wednesday 26 November of the Second American Mission Congress opened with a prayer to Our Lady in the language of Maya people, accompanied by missionary hymns, Father Victor Livori Fides Correspondent in Guatemala reports.
The first conference on “Mission Today” was given by Pope John Paul’s Special Envoy Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples. “The Church is either missionary or she is not the Church” the Cardinal said amidst warm applause. Today the Church is aware that in a globalised and pluralist world the Christian faith is one voice among many. In many modern forums and environments the voice of the Church is a minority. This calls for a faith which is more adult, more faithful to Christ and to his Church, bolder in facing the new challenges so that the Church may become more missionary.
The Cardinal recalled how the Pope, in these 25 years of Pontificate, has emphasised that the Church is essentially missionary. Since the beginning of his pontificate he has visited Particular Churches becoming a travelling catechist. In official documents “Redemptoris Missio” and “Novo Millennio Ineunte”, in particular he has highlighted the unchanging validity of the Church’s missionary mandate. In “Redemptoris Missio” he gave guidelines for fervent new evangelisation. Cardinal Sepe also mentioned his own recent pastoral visit to Mongolia, when he ordained the first Catholic Bishop to serve a community of 140 Catholics: the seed of a new Church growing in Asia.
After the conference given by Cardinal Sepe a Marist Brother, a missionary in Guatemala for many years, recalled the country’s numerous martyrs who gave their life for the faith. And the Bishops’ Conference made a gift to each Congress participant of a book on the lives of Guatemala’s martyrs in Spanish “Faithful Witness to the Gospel” .
There followed prayers in Maya from the four main poles representing air, water, land and fire. This is a native prayer of thanksgiving to God recalling the living spirits of ancestors. After lunch the delegates set to work in groups to discuss assigned themes and then gathered for a closing Plenary Assembly to elaborate the findings of Day ONE.
The day ended with a concelebrated mass in Guatemala City St James’ Cathedral presided by Cardinal Sepe. In his homily the Cardinal did not fail to mention Guatemala’s martyrs catechists, priests and even bishops such as Bishop Juan Gerardi auxiliary of Guatemala City: “Their act of love, their blood shed, pardon given to their assassins testify a Church weak, small and poor, for the categories of the world, but strong and great in love and forgiveness”. “The Church in America can and must offer much more than it has hitherto given to the missions with great generosity and do more to foster and increase the missionary spirit of all its members. To reaffirm strongly the urgency and priority of mission to all those peoples who have still to encounter Christ, both in America and from America, is, for the Holy Father, one of the most urgent tasks of the Church”.
(S.L.) (Fides Service 27/11/2003; lines 44; words 615)
