Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Agenzia Fides) - The Spanish Institute for Foreign Missions IEME has organised the 25th Missionary Animation Meeting for diocesan priests to be held 6 - 8 June in Madrid, as part of celebrations for the 5th centenary of the birth of Francis Xavier the patron saint of missionaries. The theme of the meeting is ‘Explaining the reason for Mission today.’ The participants will strive to answer the question “Why insist on the urgency and legitimacy of missionary activity?”: starting from various challenges: secularism, increasingly present in the West; a secular society which wants to relegate religion to a private and personal experience; an ageing clergy, a vocations crisis; the consideration that every person can fund salvation in his or her own religion; the existence of numerous NGOs and international agencies working for development in the poorest countries of the planet.
Conferences during the meeting will focus on various subjects including: “Reasons for Mission in the Spanish Church of today”; “A mission with thirst for justice”; “Mission open to dialogue in a rural world”. Participants will also listen to missionary testimony and take part in workshops and group discussion. Mass on the 7th will be presided by Bishop Ramón del Hoyo, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Commission for Missions Missioni Mass on the 8th by the Military Ordinary Archbishop Francisco Pérez González, also National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Spain. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 3/6/2006; righe 19, parole 261)
