Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Brasilia (Agenzia Fides) – With the Mass presided by the Secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Brazil (CNBB), Archbishop Dimas Lara Barbosa, the first Missionary Conference for Seminarians began yesterday, July 4, in Brasilia. The event brings together about 160 seminarians from all over Brazil, with three bishops and several priests who work in the formation of seminarians.
Father Estêvão Raschietti, Director of the Cultural Missionary Center of Brazil, sent Fides a detailed program of the Congress. The speakers are: Father Vito del Prete, PIME, Secretary General of the Pontifical Missionary Union, Sister Maria de Fátima Morais, IASCJ; Father Guy Labonté, PIME; Father Joachim Andrade, SVD, Father Antônio Magalhães Almir de Oliveira, and Father Paulo Suess. The Congress will continue its work until Saturday, July 10. Daily Morning Prayer will be led by a bishop.
The Secretary General of the Pontifical Missionary Union, Father Vito del Prete, PIME, at the opening of Congress at the seminary of the Archdiocese of Brasilia, urged priests to make the mission their own, pointing out that the Pontifical Union Mission is there to encourage and train bishops, priests, seminarians, and religious in the missionary spirit. "If we can mobilize the clergy for the missions, the whole Church will become missionary,” said Fr. Del Prete. This is the first objective of this Congress, and hopefully not the last."
Father Vito stressed that the Church in Brazil “is like the engine of revitalization of the mission in Latin America” and added that the Congress should “once again set the participation of the universal mission in motion.” (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 05/07/2010)
