Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Caracas (Agenzia Fides) - A family on mission: this is the experience of Marco and Ilaria Petri, a married couple both lay Franciscans from Prato, Italy, who set out two months ago for mission in Venezuela, sent by the Secular Franciscan Order of Italy. They are on mission in Guanare, in west Venezuela, at the Pay y Bien Social Centre at San Antonio parish, run by Friars Minor. For three years they will live an experience of sharing and service at the parish, animating the Social Centre, exchanging ideas and views with the local Franciscans as part of a missionary project for religious and lay Franciscans called “Semilla” little seed.
Before setting out, Marco and Ilaria underwent a year of formation at the Centro Unitario Missionario in Verona. At the end of the course they received the missionary mandate from their Bishop, Bishop Gastone Simoni of Prato and last December 15 they flew to Venezuela. The couple are expecting a baby but this did not deter them from starting their mission.
“Guanare - they write in a letter to Fides - in the Llano lowland rich in pastures…we met the Bishop of Guanare who officially started our project. He welcomed us like a father and blessed the mission. He said it is important to have the presence of a family which lives its experience of Christian faith and life in a poor area where families often live in difficult conditions of neglect.”.
Marco and Ilaria say they were given a warm welcome but they noticed immediately “the difficult economic situaiton, galloping inflation and unemployment, spreading poverty and situations of criminality and drug abuse.”
“We are getting to know the families and visit them- the letter ends - and to listen to their needs. The panorama is varied: there is a problem of street children, often born to unmarried mothers, they grow up without protection and easily fall into the circle of crime. There is also a problem of alcoholism which affects mainly men. Our mission has just begun. May God accompany us on this path”
(PA) (27/2/2004 Agenzia Fides 27/2/2004 lines 35 word 385)
