EUROPE/ITALY - 55 MISSIONARIES SALESIAN – RELIGIOUS AND LAY – SET OUT FOR 22 COUNTRIES ALL OVER THE WORLD

Friday, 3 October 2003

Torino (Fides Service /Ans) - Some 55 Saleisan missionaries are about to depart for mission in 22 different countries in various parts of the world. The missionaries are 23 Religious (17 Salesians and 6 Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix) and 32 lay missionaries (23 Italians belonging to VIS, 6 Poles e 3 Slovaks). Among the Italians there is a family with two small children Gabriele and Chiara, destined for mission in Manicore in Brazil. The others will be distributed in 21 countries : 18 in Africa (Ethiopia 4, Equatorial Guinea 1, Mozambique 1, Ghana 1, Sudan 1, Sierra Leone 2, Kenya 3, Angola 4, Burundi 1); 3 in Asia (China 1, Pakistan 1, Cambodia 1); 10 in America (Bolivia 2, Peru 1, Argentina 3); 4 in Oceania (Solomon Islands 2, Papua New Guinea 2); 11 in Europe (Albania 6, Kosovo 3, Georgia 1, Hungary 1). 3 are awaiting to hear their mission destination..
On Sunday 28 September, during a Concelebrated Mass at the Basilica di Maria Auxiliatrix of Valdocco (Torino), Fr Pascual Chavez, Salesian Rector Major consigned the missionary cross to the 55 missionaries. In his holy he thanked God “for continually giving the Church men woman and even children, consecrated and lay, who accept the command given by the Lord Jesus before his Ascension ”. He thanked each missionary “for the generous response to the missionary calling which renders mission ad gentes possible”. Fr Chavez urged them to strive to make the faith comprehensible because where it is not understood it is in danger of becoming an element of discrimination and conflict. “Jesus teaches us – he added – to climb over fences and welcome all seeds of truth, beauty and goodness sown all over the world ”. (S.L.) (Fides Service 3/10/2003 – lines 19, words 294)


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