Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Guatemala City (Fides Service) – There are only 144 days to the inauguration of the 2nd all American Mission Congress “and on the journey towards this important missionary event the preparatory meetings are ever more intense and charged with joyful missionary commitment”, says Father Antonio Bernasconi, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Guatemala and executive secretary of the organising Commission for CAM 2, in a report sent to Fides Service.
The organising commissions expects a total number of 3,300 participants; 300 will be children and adolescents members of Missionary Childhood Pontifical Mission Society. From 3 to 6 July, at the head office of the PMS in Guatemala, there is a meeting “for logistic planning and organisation of the participation of missionary children and adolescents at the American Mission Congress”. The meeting is for PMS national directors, national secretaries of Missionary Childhood and Adolescence and 4 Delegate Assessors from each Central American country.
The programme of the meeting includes: 3 July welcome and presentation of delegations by Father Antonio Bernasconi; opening address by Bishop Julio Cabrera Ovalle of Jalapa who is President of the Central Commission for CAM. In the afternoon the delegations will present their own Missionary path of Missionary Childhood and Adolescence towards the American Mission Congress. On Friday 4 July: proposal of themes to discuss during the Congress and drafting of the “Handbook for Children Congress participants”. Saturday 5 July will be devoted to spirituality: participants will start the day with a Marian celebration and then go to Chimaltenango to take part in the ordination of the first K’Aqchikeles native Comboni missionary priests. After the Mass they will meet Missionary Childhood groups from the region. In the afternoon of the same day there will be a visit to San Pedro di Betancourt in old Guatemala. On Sunday 6 July the meeting will close with a solemn Mass followed by the sending of missionaries. (R.Z.) (Fides Service 3/07/2003; lines 27; words 322)
