Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - From 8 to 11 December at the Casa "Divin Maestro" in Ariccia (Rome), there will be an international Mission Congress “To the ends of the earth - La Piccola Opera on Mission: pastoral care and frontier mission” promoted by the religious Families founded by St Luigi Orione: the Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza and the Piccole Suore Missionarie della Carità, in collaboration with the Istituto Secolare Orionino and the Orionino Lay Movement.
The participants, including 90 delegates from Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe, will reflect on the new mission challenges facing the sons and daughters of Don Orione in the coming years. The religious Family of Don Orione is present with men and women religious and lay members working in situations of frontier in 32 different countries of which almost half are mission territories.
“With this international Congress - says Don Enemesio Lazzaris, Vicar general of the Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza and mission delegate - we wish to implement more effectively the teaching of John Paul II who always encouraged us to be missionaries. Today the complex situation calls for even greater generosity on the part of our religious and lay members to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth".
"Today - Don Lazzaris continues - we are called to be missionaries and evangelisers at a time of fragmentation of values, theological pluralism and consequent relativism of truth. But these times also show a more marked demand for meaning and need for hope and solidarity. This is why we have organised a moment of sharing to identify needs and form concrete proposals to render more effective the missionary witness of the sons and daughters of St Luigi Orione".
"To help us understand these themes- says Sr Maria Priscilla Oliveria, councillor general of the Piccole Suore Missionarie della Carità delegate for Missions - with us we will have Fr Paolo Archiati of the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate who will speak on the theme “Missions of religious: community dynamics and Consolidation” and before him we will listen to our major superiors, Fr. Flavio Peloso and Sr Maria Irene Bazzotto, who will present “The Orionina Mission: Memory, Situation and Prospects".” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 6/12/2005; righe 29; parole 386)
