EUROPE/SPAIN - YOUNG VOLUNTEERS SPEND SUMMER HOLIDAYS ON MISSION

Friday, 25 July 2003

Madrid (Fides Service) – Besides being a time for rest and enjoyment, Summer holidays can also be a time to help the work of the Church particularly where there is most need. Again this year a good number of young Spaniards have decided to spend their vacation working in mission territories.
According to information issued by the Archdiocese of Madrid, On 10 July a group of nine young people from the diocese of Zamora set out for Chontali in Peru, a district in the Vicariate Apostolic of Jaen for a month to help in a Spanish mission. This is the third such initiative organised by the diocesan Youth office and the Delegation for Missions. The young volunteer missionaries will teach, help with social work as well as catechism, organising prayer groups, games for children, talks on alcoholism, the family, the sacraments, sects, health problems etc.
On July 9 a group of 15 students from Valenzia diocese, members of the University Assocation Carel and the Collegio Maggiore Albalat, connected with Opus Dei, set out for Nicaragua. In Diriamba, south of the capital Managua, they will help rebuild a school almost completely destroyed by floods. The young missionaries will also help develop activities in view of sustainable development and to alleviate to some extent the effects of natural disasters, very frequent in Nicaragua. Students of the same group from Valenzia have already taken part in similar initiatives in Rumania and Poland. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 25/07/2003; lines 18 - words 236)


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