Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
La Plata (Fides Service) - Within the framework of the Year of the Eucharist, Missione Gran Rio”, will hold a second International Meeting on lay missionary activity from 19 to 21 November in La Plata with the slogan “Living water gushes from His side”.
Lay missionary Nelson Saralegui, Co-ordinator of the National Mission Council of Chile, and a member of the Bishops’ Commission for Missions, informed Fides about the event: “Bishops, priests, men and women religious, lay missionaries and pastoral workers from 25 countries in America, Africa, Asia and Europe will take part. The meeting has been prepared over the past months with consultations on missionary situations in different sectors of the local Church to then inform the international meeting of missionary experiences and reflections”.
Reflection will focus on “The missionary situation in America”. Work group reflection will be prepared by four conferences on the following themes: Pastoral work and mission ad gentes (Maria Isabel Vaamonde, missiologist, Missione Gran Rio co-ordinator and a member of the Pontifical Missionary Union); “Family Pastoral” (Rosa Elba Sánchez, Colombia National University); Inculturation of the Gospel from the African point of view (Miguel Aguirre); Challenges to evangelisation in America in the light of the teaching of Pope John Paul II. Preferential option for the poor, the phenomenon of religious sects as pastoral challenges (Father Jorge Horacio Dezilio, founder and director of “Missione Gran Rio”).
“Missione Gran Rio” which has as its motto “From the great river to the ends of the earth” was established in the parish of Saint Anthony of Padua in the archdiocese of La Plata, Argentina in 1995, by the parish priest Father Jorge Horacio Dezilio. It started as an initiative of lay missionaries within a parish and supported by the parishioners themselves. In successive years the Mission developed, becoming autonomous, it crossed national borders and is today international with members working in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Central African Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Today Mission Gran Rio has about 3,000 lay mission animators working in various areas, according to the needs of the people: medical centres, mass media, homes for the elderly, assistance to unemployed, children, prison inmates, catechesis and missionary education and other activities. Among all the activities the most important is evangelisation. (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 16/11/2004, righe 33, parole 407)
