OCEANIA/PAPUA NEW GUINEA - Mission is the "DNA" of Christian identity: the vocation of Catholic laity

Friday, 29 November 2019

AP

Port Moresby (Agenzia Fides) - "Mission should not be reduced to some activities: it is the DNA of our Christian identity and existence": this was stated by Father Valentine Gryk, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands in the course of the seminar, held from 25 to 29 November in Waigani, dedicated to the laity on the theme "Our Catholic laity: holy and formed for mission". About twenty delegates from the various dioceses of the two countries took part.
The meeting was attended by two facilitators from the East Asian Pastoral Institute in the Philippines, a consecrated layman and a professor of theology.
"Evangelizing means promoting a relationship with Jesus Christ so that Christ can bring about a transformation of the heart, not only on a personal but also a cultural level. You have been chosen by God to bring the Gospel to all people, at all times and in all places", said Fr. Gryk. "It is important to form coordinators of missionary animation in the dioceses and let them acquire certain skills, to enable them, in turn, to involve the lay faithful in the missionary work of the new evangelization", he explained in the note sent to Agenzia Fides, further emphasizing the importance of the laity in the life of the Church.
The seminar aimed to transmit to the lay Catholics of the local Churches a clear vision of their vocation to holiness. The laity, Papua Guinea and Solomon Islands, states the note, "need to deepen their dignity as active members and collaborators in the one mission of the Church and in the particular role in which they are the protagonists. It is essential that they recognize that they are called for a mission in the Church and in society".
Participating lay coordinators will now have to draw up a simple and realistic action plan to share in the diocese of origin. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 29/11/2019)


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