Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) – On May 12, the 10th General Ordinary Assembly of the Spanish Foreign Missions Institute (IEME) met in Madrid. The event was attended by 26 representatives from missionary groups in 14 different countries. The General Assembly is held every five years. In the encounter, whose closure will take place this morning, the IEME’s mission activity was reviewed and reported, as well as the situation of the people, teams, and groups, in the effort to offer a better response to the needs of people and places where they are working. In addition, during the Assembly was the election of Director General for the next five years: Ismael Gonzalez Fuentes of the Diocese of Palencia, missionary in Osaka (Japan).
This Assembly, was planned one year ago by the Preparatory Committee, who performed a series of surveys among those who form the Institute. With the results of these surveys, a document was issued that formed the basis of review for the Assembly’s participants. Once those present has heard and evaluated the reports from the General Director and the various groups of mission, seven important points were reflected on: Our Mission Today; Our Spirituality; Our Formation; Our Structures; IEME in Spain; Associates of IEME; Retired and Elders of IEME.
Archbishop Francisco Perez of Pamplona, President of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain, participated in the opening session of the Assembly and Bishop Ramon del Hoyo of Jaen, President of the Bishops’ Commission for the Missions, gave a spiritual retreat at the beginning of the event.
The closure of the Assembly will take place on May 30, with a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, and in whose present the new General Director will make his profession of faith at the start of his task and service to the Church as head of the Institute.
The Spanish Foreign Missions Institute “San Francisco Javier” (IEME) began in Burgos nearly 90 years ago and is a society of apostolic life of Spanish diocesan priests that come together to dedicate themselves to the Church’s missionary activity. These are the essential points of the IEME, that make up its identity and that have always remained in the most intimate convictions of its members: membership of the Spanish diocesan clergy; complete dedication to the Church’s missionary activity; the mutual association so that by living in apostolic fraternity and communion, they may better live out their common missionary vocation.
The IEME is currently formed by 200 priests from different dioceses that work in 14 countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the order in which they began receiving missionaries from the IEME: Colombia (1,923), Zimbabwe (1,949), Japan (1,953), Mozambique (1,954), Guatemala (1,954), Peru (1,970), Brazil (1,970), Zambia (1,970), Dominican Republic (1,972), Togo (1,975), Nicaragua (1,981), Thailand (1,991), Panama (1,992), and Cuba (2,001). (RG) (Agenzia Fides 29/5/2008)
