EUROPA/ITALY - 50th anniversary of the encyclical Fidei Donum: Meeting for Missionary Families

Thursday, 7 December 2006

Bellaria (Agenzia Fides) - “Missionary Families” will be at the centre of a meeting for lay missionaries 8- 10 December at the Centro Congressi Europeo di Bellaria, in Rimini, organised by the Italian Bishops’ Conference CEI Office for Missionary Cooperation among the Churches as part of initiatives for the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Fidei Donum (1957-2007). Participants will include lay people who have been on mission making use of the CEI Convention (three years, extendable), signed by the bishops of both sending and receiving dioceses, who have been given a diocesan missionary mandate or are taking part in courses in preparation for departure.
The 100 enrolled participants include many children for whom a programme of missionary animation and education to globalisation has been arranged. With an intense programme the meeting aims to assess specific progress in mission cooperation with the presence of lay people and also identify and address the difficulties encountered in the experience. On Friday December 8 the work will start with the presentation of a biblical icon of the Meeting by Donatella Scajola of Urban University in Rome and a conference by Dario Nicoli of the Catholic University in Brescia, on the theme “Sociological horizon of lay missionary commitment ad gentes”. In the evening the participants will watch a film and a TV interview on the theme “Lay Missionaries, yesterday and today”. Saturday 9 will be dedicated to reflection on the theological and anthropological horizon, with the intervention of Luca Moscatelli from Milan, and group discussion on daily life, responsibility of the faith, intercultural commitment. Sunday the 10 December will be devoted to assessing the findings of group reflection and the whole meeting with the help of two observers : Dario Nicoli sociologist and Filomeno Lopez, representative of the Churches of the south of the world . (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 7/12/2006 - Righe 22; Parole 300)


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