EUROPE/SPAIN - PROMOTE MISSIONARY SPIRIT AMONG CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE, WHO ARE THE HOPE OF HUMANITY: PMS SPECIAL SUMMER EVENTS

Tuesday, 10 June 2003

Madrid (Fides Service) – It is important to promote among children and young people a spirit of mission to plant the seed which will enable them to become the missionaries of tomorrow: “We must promote the missionary spirit among children who are the hope of humanity”, says Bishop Francisco Perez Gonzales, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain, in a message for the 160th anniversary of the founding of Missionary Childhood, present in Spain for 150 years.
To awaken missionary spirit among children in several dioceses the Pontifical Mission Societies have organised various initiatives. In Valencia diocese, the Missions delegation in collaboration with the Amics de les Mision missionary group has planned a missionary school camp in July at Camarena de La Sierra (Teruel, Spain) for children aged 9 to 14, with the aim of spreading the teachings of the Catholic Church and helping children to be aware of the problems and needs of missionaries when they arrive in the third world.
In Coruna, archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela, the Pontifical Mission Societies have organised a Missionary Youth Camp in Santa Cruz 18-31 July open to young people and youth animators from all over Spain and also other countries. The Missionary Youth Camp initiatives, launched by the PMS through the CMDE-World Youth 34 years ago, have been attended by young people and animators from Spain, Belgium, France, Canada and Mexico. The aim of Missionary Youth Camp is to awaken in young people awareness of the universal mission and to do so it makes use of various activities and testimony of missionaries from all over the world. The slogan this year is “Our hopes are pinned on youth open to the world”. RG (Fides Service 10/6/2003 EM lines 22 Words: 291)


Share: