ASIA/HOLY LAND – New equipe for missionary animation in the land of Jesus

Tuesday, 9 September 2014

Jerusalem (Agenzia Fides) – Two intense days of prayer, reflection and listening to testimony, held 5 and 6 September, involved some forty participants in a “missionary animation” session convoked by Carmelite priest Fr Mikhael Abdo Abdo, papal delegate for Missionary Works in the Holy Land. The purpose of the two day event, held at a Centre run by the Comboni Sisters in Abu-Dis – eastern suburb of Jerusalem, situated not far from the wall of separation built by the Israeli government– was to foster the formation of a team for missionary reflection and action capable of spreading awareness of the missionary dimension of the Christian way of life, a team which will creatively work in coordination with the network of Catholic dioceses and parishes in the Holy Land.
“This is the first meeting in a series - Fides learned from Fr. Abdo – with which, with patience, we wish to promote missionary awareness in ordinary parish activities, especially among our young people. We hope to hold the next meeting in April 2015”.
Fr. Abdo’s invitation was taken up by a number of seminarians at the Patriarchal Seminary in Beit Jala, several religious Sisters of various congregations and a large group of young Catholics from parishes in Haifa, Nazareth, Akko and Jerusalem. The inspirers of the initiative were pleased but also perplexed by the indifference shown by some parishes who ignored an invitation to send their own representative.
The two days of prayer, meetings and testimony were articulated around three conferences given by Fr. Abdo, Fr. David Neuhaus sj, Latin patriarchal Vicar for the Hebrew speaking Catholic community , and Bishop Giacinto Boulos Marcuzzo, patriarchal Vicar at Nazareth, who offered the participants some reflections on missionary spirituality.
Workshops on practical ways and means of missionary animation produced ideas and material destined to become part of a practical working paper to inspire the activity of mission animators in the Holy Land in the years ahead. Points of magisterial reference proposed repeatedly during the meetings and conferences were in particular the Ad Gentes Decree of Vatican II, the encyclical Redemptoris Missio by John Paul II, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in the Middle East signed by Benedict XVI and the apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium by Pope Francis. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 9/9/2014).


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