Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Panama City (Agenzia Fides) – This Sunday, March 1, the Catholic Church in Panama will officially launch its Nationwide Mission, in the Basilica of Saint Michael the Archangel, in a Mass for the Feast of the Christ of Atalaya. The ceremony will be presided by Bishop Jose Luis Lacunza, President of the Panamanian Bishops' Conference, and concelebrated by the other Bishops of Panama and priests from several dioceses.
The Bishops' Conference of Panama will thus unite its efforts to the Great Continental Mission, in which the entire Church is placing itself in a permanent missionary state, with the goal of reaching out to all Catholics, in an effort of bringing the Gospel to all those who do not yet know Christ or have strayed away from the Church.
“This is a call to launch ourselves into the great mission across the Continent, bringing the message of a fuller life, a more dignified life in Christ, to every man and woman in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in our case, Panama,” the Bishops said.
During the act, there will be a sending-out ceremony, where the Missionary Flyer will be presented to each Bishop and his delegation of missionaries from the diocese. The flyer was presented to the Bishops of Latin America by the Holy Father Benedict XVI, in the launching of the Continental Mission this past August 17, 2008, in Ecuador, in the Third American Missionary Congress (CAM3).
This mission, which implies a commitment on the part of all the faithful, will begin this year and lasts until 2013, in which Panama celebrates its 500th anniversary of evangelization.
The goals of the mission are: promote a profound personal conversion to start again from Christ in a new life in the Spirit; encourage personal formation for those preaching the Good News, in a integral and permanent mode; promote formation in communities; promote the permanent missionary state in all communities, in order to reach every corner of the nation; accompany all the ecclesial jurisdictions in the entire process of the Mission, with its 4 stages: : a) Awareness b) Reflection c) Regional Mission and d) Territorial Mission. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 26/2/2009)
