Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Ayacucho (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father, Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, Archbishop of Lima and Primate of Peru, as his Special Envoy to Ayacucho, with the occasion of the IV Centenary of the Archdiocese of Ayacucho (Peru). The celebrations will take place on July 20, 2009.
Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, prior to being appointed Archbishop of Lima was Archbishop of Ayacucho (1988-1999), where he carried out a fruitful pastoral labor of restoring Churches and reopening the Seminary of Huamanga, aid to the poor – especially women and orphans, victims of terrorism – and other projects.
The Archdiocese of Ayacucho was established on July 20, 1609 and raised to Archdiocese on June 30, 1966 by Paul VI. It is currently led by Archbishop Luis Abilio Sebastiani Aguirre, SM. On the celebration of the Fourth Centenary of its creation, the Archdiocesan Assembly of Pastoral Ministry held on April 8-10, 2005 unanimously approved this great jubilee through a Great Mission on an Archdiocesan level. On this occasion, the Bishop published a Pastoral Letter entitled “Church of Ayacucha, Your Life is the Mission” in February 2005, in which he proposed the Great Mission as an effective means of realizing the challenge we have before us in the New Evangelization, to announce the Good News to all those who hunger for God. The Great Mission of Ayacucho 2006-2009 has been an intense and extraordinary time of evangelization with several main goals: enliven the faith of the baptized who have drifted away from the Church; awaken the faith of believers and call non-believers to the faith; confirm the faith of those working to communicate the faith with joy. The mission had three stages: a Pre-Mission during 2006; the Mission (officially speaking) in 2007-2008; and the Post-Mission in 2009, the “Jubilee Year.” There was also a “Missionary's Book” published in preparation for the mission. The Archdiocese of Ayacucho, with a little over half a million inhabitants, has 50 priests, 20 religious brothers, 130 sisters, and 3 permanent deacons. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 26/5/2009)
