AMERICA/MEXICO -1,800 children’s letters say “thank you” to the Pope

Hermosillo (Agenzia Fides) – Some 1.800 letters to say ‘thank you’ to Pope Benedict XVI and ask him to pray for the children of the world were written by young participants at the First Regional Congress of Missionary Childhood and Adolescence (CORIAM) held at Hermosillo, Sonora (Mexico).
"We had trouble finding something in which to put so many letters addressed to the Pope, the few big boxes we had at the time were insufficient, and we have promised to get them to Pope Benedict XVI in Rome before February 28 " said Fr.Aldo Israel Estrella Garcia, Holy Childhood Secretary in Mexico.
According to a report sent to Fides, the Congress, held 15-17 February, was attended by more than 1,800 children and adolescents, members of IAM, from three ecclesiastic provinces Baja California, Chihuahua and Hermosillo, in northern Mexico. Among those present at the Congress the Archbishop of Hermosillo, Archbishop José Ulises Macías Salcedo and Fr Guillermo Alberto Morales Martinez, Mexico’s National PMS director.
The children took part in a Missionary March across the city from the cathedral to the sports stadium, praying as they walked for all missionaries everywhere in the world. The youngsters also called for an end to all violence in Mexico making a deeply emotional stop in total silence in front of a Crucifix, marking the site of a fire in 2009 in which 49 kindergarten pupils died.(CE) (Agenzia Fides, 20/02/2013