EUROPE/SPAIN - “International Days for Charity and Voluntary Work” organised by San Antonio Catholic University in Murcia: conferences, testimony, exhibitions and initiatives of solidarity

Murcia (Fides Service) - San Antonio Catholic University in Murcia UCAM is hosting the 3rd edition of International Days for Charity and Voluntary Work organised jointly by the university with the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and the office of the Spanish Bishops’ Commission for Social Pastoral. The event opened today, 23 February at Angel Herrera Hall.
The official opening ceremony began with a presentation by the University’s Rector Jose Luis Mendoza followed by a conference given by Cardinal Antonio Ma Rouco Varela, Archbishop of Madrid and President of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference on the theme “Foundations of Social and Charity Work”. Fernando Fuentes, head of the office of the Spanish Bishops’ Commission for Social Pastoral will illustrate the Conference’s activity in the field of Social Pastoral.
The programme includes a series of conferences and testimony, an Exhibition on Voluntary Work 26-29 February for which stands have been prepared by national and international charity associations, a charity evening to raise funds for the purchase of a radiology machine for a hospital in Cameroon. One important activity in the context of these Days is a project entitled: “Meeting Other Peoples”, to promote knowledge of other countries and regions, factiliate inter-cultural and linguistic exchange and friendship building.
On 26 February there will be two conferences: “Theology of Charity and the Social Teaching of the Church” by Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and “Psychological and Theological Realities in the practical accompaniment of persons” by Heinrich Pompey, Director of the Institute of the Science of Charity in Scienze in Friburg. On 27 there will be a Cinema-Forum “Education and Human Rights”, led by Ascension Escamilla Valera, international head of Idente Voluntary group. On the same day Father José Rodriguez Carvallo, Minister General of the Friars Minor will give a conference entitled “A Life of Charity in Saint Francis of Assisi”. The Days will close on March 7 with a “Eucharist of Charity and Voluntary Work presided by Bishop Manuel Ureña, Bishop of Cartagena and Grand Chancellor of the San Antonio University. (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 23/2/2004; righe 28 - parole 340)