Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bogota (Agenzia Fides) – Today, Bogota (Colombia) will open the exhibition "Las reducciones of Paraguay." The exhibition focuses on the creation and development of communities, called "reducciones" (“reductions”) by the Jesuits on the greater part of the territory now occupied by Paraguay. “Reductions,” in Paraguay, are communities born from the desire of missionaries and indigenous Christianity live fully and become a social, political, and productive model that is still worth being imitated. It is no coincidence that it has been said that they were the model places of the Latin American common good, and this shows that Christianity that is lived fully creates a new form of civilization. Visiting the exhibition, you can see how people lived their day in the reductions, as well as how to live well today. This was the main reason why the exhibition was created.
Another reason behind the exhibition is the desire to recover something of the historical memory that, at times, has not been sufficiently recognized: the Church, before, during, and after independence, was a factor of identity and source of units. The exhibition is housed in the central building of Javeriana University, on the occasion of the Bicentennial celebrations, and was staged by different ecclesial associations: the ecclesial movement “Communion and Liberation” of Colombia, the associations of St. Toribio and St. Louis, with the support of the Pontifical Javeriana University, the Catholic University of Colombia, and the Embassy of Paraguay in Colombia. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 12/04/2010)
