Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Melbourne (Agenzia Fides) - A new emerging congregation of priests, religious brothers, and sisters which was founded in Canberra in 1986 and that is dedicated to what Pope John Paul II called “the new evangelization” is seeking to re-evangelize the Christian world marked by hedonism and secularism.
The Missionaries, who are now present in Melbourne, Canberra, and Darwin (Australia) and Manila (Philippines), are seeming a large increase in vocations and are having to add on to their houses of formation, given the rising number of seminarians and postulants who come, wishing to embrace this form of consecrated life, dedicated mainly to work with the poor and marginalized, with a special focus on the formation of the youth.
An appeal was made to the people and Church associations, by Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, asking that they help raise funds for the Missionaries, as they seek to build a new seminary. The Archbishop praised the Missionaries for “their zeal and commitment to building the Kingdom of God.”
“The Church is always in need of new workers in the harvest,” Fr. Ken Barker, the Missionaries' spokesman, said. “We have to believe that the Lord will send us many priests and consecrated, who will carry on the spirit of the new evangelization, giving their lives with an undivided heart, to the spreading of the Gospel. The Missionaries take a special vow of poverty and depend totally on Providence. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/10/2008)
