Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - The Secretary General of the Pontifical Mission Society Holy Childhood Fr. Patrick Byrne, SVD., was the last of the general secretaries of the four PMS to present to the general assembly which ended on 12 May in Ciampino (Rome) requests from different parts of the world for help for children that little people too may hear the Good News of Jesus. Fr Byrne said he was pleased to announce that compared to the previous year more funds were collected in 2005 and he thanked the national directors because “with this Society’s Universal Fund we are able to alleviate the sufferings of many children”.
The aim of Holy Childhood, with the motto “children helping children”, as the Statute affirms, is “to assist educators to awaken and gradually develop in both children and adolescents world wide missionary consciousness in order to guide them towards spiritual communion and material sharing of their resources with children of other Churches especially those in difficulty.”
Fr Byrne, in his report on the activity of the Society in the past twelve months said that the general secretariat in Rome received numerous letters of thanks from bishops all over the world: “for example a bishop in South Africa said that in the fight against the AIDS pandemic he had been able to form at least 10 teams of qualified nurses and operators to work in city suburbs and remote villages and that also with our help he had opened a home for children dying of AIDS with no one to care for them. The Church in this particular case is the only sign of help”.
In 2005 Holy Childhood supported 756 aid projects mainly in Africa and Asia in the field of education (helping Catholic schools build and restructure buildings, purchase books, provide school meals etc.); pro-life work (helping hospitals run by Catholic religious, medical assistance in parishes, maternity centres etc ); missionary animation and formation (rooms and material for catechism classes, and meetings for children) and pastoral care for children. Moreover through the Holy Childhood emergency fund, help was sent to Uganda, Grenada, El Salvador and India, affected by natural calamities and various difficulties. (G.R.) (Agenzia Fides 15/5/2006 - Righe 27; Parole 381)
