EUROPE/SPAIN - "Día de Hispanoamérica": in communion with the Spanish missionaries in Latin America

Tuesday, 25 February 2020 missionary animation   local churches   pontifical mission societies  

OMP Spagna

Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - Remembering the Spanish missionaries in Latin America and collaborating with them: this is the purpose of the "Día de Hispanoamérica" which is celebrated next Sunday, March 1st. This year the motto will be "So that they can have life in him". It is "a fundamental dimension of life that God participates and invites us to share, the living nucleus that animates and verifies the missionary journey of the Church, of life that becomes Life" explains the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America in its message for the day sent to Fides.
Among the various reports sent to Fides for this circumstance, the Commission for Missions and Cooperation between the Churches of the Spanish Episcopal Conference has published several brochures for the Day of Hispanic America, which include, among other things, the Message of the Presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, a liturgical grant, information report, and a text on the theme of the Missionary Laity written for the occasion by Dolores Golmayo, President of the Lay Missionary Associations.
The Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) of Spain are preparing the celebration of the Day with various activities on social media, in an organized way and with wide diffusion. The television program "Tu eres Mision", the program of the Pontifical Mission Societies on TRECE TV, will present the Day, which the Spanish Church celebrates in all Hispanic countries every first Sunday of March, remembering in a special way the twin churches of Latin America. Javier Pedraza, diocesan priest of Madrid, member of the Obra de Cooperación Sacerdotal Hispanoamericana (OCSHA), will speak about his 18 years of mission in Brazil, offering the testimony of his missionary experience in the Brazilian dioceses of Feira de Santana and Ruy Barbosa, near Bahia. Then the testimony of a married missionary couple and a Colombian religious who worked in the Congo, Haiti and Angola will follow.
Spain's PMS project for this occasion concerns one of the youngest churches in the world, Mongolia, where three missionaries arrived in 1992, after the fall of the communist regime. There are currently more than 70 missionaries from 24 nations.
Obra's report for the Cooperación Sacerdotal Hispanoamericana (OCSHA) informs that there are currently 208 Spanish priests in Latin America, while in 2019 there were 237. On this day they are remembered in a particular way through prayer and financial help. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 25/2/2020)


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