Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
San Jose (Agenzia Fides) - “To strengthen sense of belonging to the Church of Christ, as disciple and missionary, to assume the commitment to evangelization where it is most needed.” This general objective characterized the sessions of the III National Missionary Congress on the theme “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel,” held September 3-6, sponsored by the National Missions Council (CONAMI) of the Costa Rican Bishops' Conference.
As a final statement from the event sent to Agenzia Fides from the Pontifical Mission Societies of Costa Rica explains, the Congress was attended by nearly 250 people, including Bishops, priests, religious, consecrated, and laity. Among the concrete objectives of the sessions, they tried to “strengthn the commitment of our churches to the universal mission”; “promote the 'ad gentes' mission beginning with a personal and pastoral conversion and as a demand of the passage from a pastoral ministry of maintenance to one that is clearly missionary”; “accept, animate, and accompany the vocations of the laity, consecrated, religious, and priests for the ad gentes mission.”
Among the central themes discussed was “Missiology Today,” addressed by Bishop Vittorino Girardi of Tilaran, President of the CONAMI, who proposed the concept of the mission “not only as a pastoral activity, but as Christ's sending out of his own, for an evangelizational activity that knows no boundaries.” Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga of Tunja (Colombia), addressed the theme of “From the Continental Mission to the Universal Mission,” affirming that the continental mission would bear “three great fruits.” The first would be “a fuller identity of the Christian as missionary disciple”; the second would be in terms of the promoting “an authentic missionary pastoral ministry”; and the third would be “projecting the mission beyond the boundaries of faith and culture.”
A third theme addressed during the Congress was “The ad gentes mission at the light of Saint Paul,” which was given by Auxiliary Bishop Silvio Jose Baez of the Archdiocese of Managua (Nicaragua). The Bishop presented the letters of the Apostle of the Gentiles in the history of salvation, showing how the new faith in Christ came out of the limited sphere of Judaism and was opened to the entire outside world. Archbishop Hugo Barrantes Ureña of San Jose of Costa Rica, President of the Costa Rican Bishops' Conference, explained the importance of the event for the Church in Costa Rica, “which is a part of the Church in Latin America, which feels motivated to join in the great universal mission.” In the course of the Congress, 10 different sessions were taking place at the same time on the following themes: “Missionary Parish”; “Spirituality and Mission”; “Youth and Mission”; “Laity and Mission”; “Immigration and Mission”; “Missionary dimension of the houses of formation”; “Indigenous people and the black culture of Costa Rica”; “Bible and Mission”; “Family and Mission”; “The Pontifical Mission Societies.” (GT) (Agenzia Fides 14/9/2009)
