AMERICA/BRAZIL - “Communion is our horizon and our dream we want to open our frontiers to bear witness to what we have seen and heard” says newly elected President of the National Mission Council COMINA.

Thursday, 4 March 2004

Brasilia (Fides Service) - From 26 to 29 February the National Office of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Brazil hosted the 26th annual meeting of the National Mission Council of the Brazilian Bishops’ Conference. The main purpose was to take stock of activity during 2003, plan activities for this year and elect an executive team for 2004-2007. Some 45 participants came from every region of Brazil: 7 Bishops of the Pastoral Commission, the co-ordinators of regional Mission Councils, representatives of missionary Institutes and the executive team of the National Mission Council COMINA.
COMINA - as the regulations affirm - is the expression of the missionary spirit of the Church in Brazil and its duty is to foster unity and effectiveness in missionary animation and cooperation to avoid competition and parallelism. In this sense the Bishops’ Conference uses COMINA to plan and execute the main activities of cooperation at the national level.
Bishop Sergio Eduardo Castriani, Bishop of Tefé, newly elected President of COMINA, in liens with COMINA’s objectives, told the participants “our assembly is first of all a meeting to build communion because communion is our horizon and our dream. We want to overcome any spirit of competition and open our frontiers to bear witness to what we have seen, heard, organising missionary activity in our Church (…) we reject anything which closes us in small horizons”.
The new team for 2004-2007 is as follows: Bishop Sergio Eduardo Castriani of Tefé, AM (President); Sr. Maize Silva Pereira (Executive Secretary); Cláudio Ambrósio (bursar); Father Eduardo Alencar Lustosa (COMIRES); Cristina Paulek (Lay Missionaries); Father Daniel Lagni (Pontifical Mission Societies); Father. José Geerickx (Missionary Cultural Centre-CCM); Sr. Maris Bolzan: Religious Conference Brazil (CRB); Sr. Rosita Milesi (Pastoral for overseas Brazilans-PBE); Sr. Rosirene Nascimento (Native Missionary Council -CIMI). (R.Z) (Agenzia Fides 4/3/2004; righe 27 - parole 327)


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