Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lima (Agenzia Fides) - In honor of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo, second Archbishop of Lima and Patron of the Latin American Bishops, whose feast is celebrated on April 28, the Great Mission in Lima will be launched, in response to the call made by the Latin American Bishops in Aparecida (Brazil), to hold a “Great Continental Mission.” The event will open with a procession with the relics and image of the Saint who was Archbishop of Lima, from the Basilica of Santo Rosario (Convent of St. Dominic), to Lima’s Cathedral, where Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne will preside the Mass at 7:00. Among the various ecclesiastical authorities attending the event will be the Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Rino Passigato; Auxiliary Bishop Adriano Tomasi of Lima; Military Bishop Salvador Piñero; Bishop Hector Vera Colona of Ica; Bishop Carlos Garcia Camader, and others.
“The Great Mission of Lima” was announced by Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, in the Mass in thanksgiving at the end of the year (December 31, 2007). According to information sent to Agenzia Fides from the Great Mission Press Office, this initiative “seeks to bring hope to all homes through the preaching of the Good News, the presence of Jesus and Mary, and coherence in the lives of Christians.”
The Great Mission in Lima will have three main points: doctrine, life, and volunteer service. That is: to make known the doctrine of knowing who Jesus is, who the Church is, the sacraments, prayer, what we believe, why we believe it, what eternal life means, and the meaning of sin and grace. The second point is the testimony of life that serves as a promotion of the experience that each Baptized person finds in the personal encounter with Christ. In this experience, we are moved to be better persons and to make the effort to be holy. Lastly, the Great Mission in Lima is an occasion to promote a spirit of volunteer service that leads Catholics in Lima to help others; that is, to give of myself for the good of others, give my time, my money, and my heart.
Cardinal Cipriani, along with the clergy of the Archdiocese, has placed very clear and precise goals for the Great Mission of Lima: increase Sunday Mass attendance, the encounter with the Living Christ in Eucharistic Adoration, the reception of the Sacraments of Christian Initiation, the recitation of the Holy Rosary in the family, volunteer service as a work of charity towards the most helpless in society, and guidance for the youth and vocational promotion.
The Great Mission will have three stages. The first, beginning April 28, will involve mainly door-to-door visits to local Catholic homes with the goal of strengthening their faith and encouraging their participation in the Great Mission. These visits will be made by the Mission’s leaders, Catholic laity who will prepare themselves in the area of Catholic doctrine and the faith in their parishes. The visits are scheduled to begin in August 2008. The second stage, beginning April 27, 2009, will include a series of youth encounters held with cultural themes, health themes, and work themes. There will also be a family symposium on the Church’s social doctrine, as well as a Catechesis Tournament for school children. Lastly, in its third and final stage, also in 2009, the Archdiocese of Lima will hold a Eucharistic and Marian Conference that will be prepared for in anticipation, with the celebration of Eucharistic and Marian feast days.
“The Great Mission of Lima is called to bear many fruits of holiness, for the common good, in the family, among the youth, and throughout the world. We wish to strengthen the awareness of our identity as children of God in the Catholic Church,” the Press Office concluded. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 25/4/2008; righe 47, parole 621)
