EUROPE/ITALY - In August, 8th National Week of Missionary Formation and Spirituality

Rome (Agenzia Fides) – 30 June is the closing date for registration to take part in Italy's 8th National Week of Missionary Formation and Spirituality in Assisi, 26 - 31August. In a letter of invitation, Rev Gianni Cesena, director of the Italian Bishops' National Office for Missionary Cooperation among Churches and also National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Italy said, “inspired by the slogan chosen for World Mission Sunday 2010 ‘Breaking Bread with all Peoples' we have given this August event the title ‘A Gift for Mission’. The gift – of which the Eucharist is the sign - is the gift which we who are sent on mission bear as we evangelises and it is also the gift we receive when we answer the Lord's call to allow ourselves to be evangelised by Him and by the people we meet”. The reference to the Eucharist points to the Italian Church's present preparation for the next National Eucharistic Congress to be held in Ancona in the Autumn of 2011. The 8th National Week of Missionary Formation and Spirituality is intended also to serve as an introduction to Pastoral proposals 2010-2011 contained in handbooks and initiatives diffused by Missio through its different branches (National Office for Missionary Cooperation among Churches, National Office of the Pontifical Mission Societies, CUM based in Verona). (SL) (Agenzia Fides 25/06/2010)