Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lima (Agenzia Fides) - Today 23 March with a solemn Mass the Bishops of Peru are commemorating Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo (1538-1606) who died 400 years ago. The saint, the second archbishop of Lima, was proclaimed patron of the Latin American Bishops Conferences by Pope John Paul II in 1983.
The Mass will be celebrated in a chapel built in the place where the saint died. It will be presided by Bishop Jesús Moliné Labarta of Chiclayo and concelebrated by papal nuncio Archbishop Rino Passigato; Bishop Héctor Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, OFM, president of the Bishops’ Conference; Bishop Juan José Larrañeta Olleta, OP, secretary general and many other Peruvian Bishops. Anniversary initiatives organised by Lima archdiocese (see Fides 20 January 2006) include: an international conference on “Toribio de Mogrovejo: Missionary, Saint and Bishop” 23 - 28 April in Lima; in Lima cathedral on 27 April feast day of Saint Toribio mass and procession with relics presided by Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Rodríguez archbishop of Santo Domingo special envoy of Pope Benedict XVI.
To celebrate the 400th anniversary also in Rome the Peruvian Embassy to the Holy See and the Pontifical Urban University have organised a Conference on 29 March at 5pm in the John Paul II Hall at Urban University on the theme “Santo Toribio, exemplary bishop in the America of his day”, with the presence of Fr Fidel González Fernández MCCJ, rector of Urban College who teaches at both the Urban and the Gregorian universities. On 27 April there will be a Mass in St Mary Major’s Basilica presided by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
