AMERICA/VENEZUELA - Archdiocese of Caracas to launch Mission on January 24: “an opportunity to renew our Church structures and communities, to enliven the faith and religious practice of Catholics, and offer renewed strength to the evangelization effort”

Caracas (Agenzia Fides) - “The evangelizing Mission will be, without a doubt, with the help of God and Our Lady of Coromoto, a perfect opportunity to renew our Church structures and communities, to enliven the faith and religious practice of Catholics, and offer renewed strength to the evangelization effort of so many people who do not know Jesus and thus, do not live the Christian faith,” said Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, Archbishop of Caracas, in a Message he issued on the launching of the Great Continental Mission in the Archdiocese and that will be read in all the parishes this coming weekend.
This past January 14, the Bishops of Venezuela inaugurated this great plan for religious, spiritual, pastoral, personal, and community renewal, which is called the Great Continental Mission (see Fides 15/1/2009). Now, on January 24, starting with Caracas, in the Church in Chiquinquira, and in each and every one of the parishes, this Mission will begin.
“For the Archdiocese of Caracas, this Mission is a special grace,” the Cardinal said, explaining that it is mainly thanks to the “reality that we are living of great secularization and religious indifference, of despise for the person and human life, of sexual licentiousness, with a decrease in Sunday Mass attendance, with the weakness of the family, and indifference towards marriage.” All this demands new fervor, new methods, and new expressions on the part of practicing Catholics and all pastoral workers.”
The Archbishop of Caracas also considers that the Mission should lead to a “renewal of our communities, our apostolic movements, our form of living the faith, of proclaiming the Message of Salvation of Our Lord Jesus Christ with strength and joy, and living our solidarity and brotherhood.”
This Continental Mission will take place in various stages: the first will be awareness and motivation for pastoral workers: priests, consecrated persons, deacons, seminarians, laity, catechists, and new evangelizers. This stage will run from January 24 to Easter Sunday. The second stage will be training and preparation of missionaries, etc., which will last until the First Sunday of Advent, This will be followed by the stages of local and territorial missions, running until the end of 2010. In this period of time, there will be an intense evangelizing activity in schools, groups, universities, workplaces, among the youth, etc. The objective will be to reach those who have taken most distance from the Church, promoting the renewal of family life, promoting the valuation and celebration of the sacraments of Marriage and Baptism, intensifying youth and vocational ministry, social work, preference fro the poor, and strengthening the various movements of lay apostolate, etc.
The Cardinal concludes his message by making an appeal to all pastoral workers to “enter with enthusiasm into this activity, with an evangelizing and renewing spirit that characterizes the disciples and missionaries of Jesus, so that our brothers may feel the joy of opening their hearts to Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 22/1/2009)