The Church in Brazil just concluded its first National
Missionary Congress, which focused on extending its mission of evangelization
beyond its own borders.
Father Daniel Lagni, president of the Pontifical Missionary Works in Brazil,
explained on Vatican Radio the works carried out by the congress, which ended
Sunday.
The initiative was promoted by the National Missionary Council, to study the
contribution the Church in Brazil can make to the 2nd American Missionary
Congress and the 7th Latin American Missionary Congress (CAM 2 and COMLA VII),
which Guatemala City will host this November.
Some 400 participants attended the Brazilian congress, including members of the
diocesan missionary councils, and congregations and institutes from all over
the country.
"During these four days we have tried to study in-depth the topic of the
mission in three very important areas for us: poverty, diversity -- other
cultures and other peoples -- and martyrdom, the reality that is very alive and
present throughout the Church in Latin America and in the universal
Church," Father Lagni said.
In the message sent by Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, prefect of the Congregation
for the Evangelization of Peoples, which was read at the opening of the
congress, the cardinal recalled that in CAM 1, held in Argentina in 1999, the
Church in America decisively assumed "the missionary responsibility 'ad
gentes' (to the nations)."
He quoted from the postsynodal apostolic exhortation "Ecclesia in
America," in which John Paul II stated, "The particular Churches in
America are called to extend their missionary efforts beyond the bounds of the
continent. They cannot keep for themselves the immense riches of their
Christian heritage" (No. 74).
These are resolutions whose realization requires "a journey in holiness,
personal and communal," as the "guarantee of effective and
evangelizing pastoral action, also in its dimension 'ad gentes,' is the
holiness of the evangelizers," Cardinal Sepe wrote.
"'To awaken a new longing for holiness': this is the great pastoral
challenge that we have before us, if we want to be faithful to God's plan and
also to respond to the yearnings and hopes of the peoples of America and of all
peoples on earth," he said.
The challenge of evangelization also includes Amazonia, which represents
virtually 40% of the national territory, the president of the Pontifical
Missionary Works in Brazil pointed out.
"Last May, the episcopal conference elaborated a plan for the Church in
Amazonia, approved in the last general assembly, inviting all to contribute to
the new evangelization," he explained.