Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Stuttgart (Agenzia Fides) - The Centre for Spirituality of the Scalabrini Missionaries in Stuttgart, in collaboration with the Scalabrini Secular Missionaries, proposed the theme for the annual Scalabrini-Fest of Fruits the dimension of the catholicity of the Church. The meeting was held in Stuttgart from October 7 to 9 with the participation of about 200 people from 21 countries. There was a lively presence of a large group of migrants and refugees from several African countries (Eritrea, Togo, Cameroon), who live in Switzerland and Germany and appreciated the possibility of an exchange and a deepening of faith with Catholics of other languages and cultures.
The reflection was carried out by Professor Fr. Luigi Sabbarese, a Scalabrini missionary, professor at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. His speech, titled "The catholicity of the Church in the world today. What mission for each Christian?" highlighted the universality as a fundamental note which belongs right from the beginning to the Church of Christ and that also qualifies the identity and mission of every baptized person. Prof. Sabbarese applied this aspect to the migration context. The migrant becomes for the Church and for every Christian a positive "pro-vocation" to make visible at a local level the Catholic dimension of Christian faith, able not only to incarnate itself in all cultures and different human realities, but also to create communion among the diversities it embraces.
Every Christian, immigrant or native, is sent, therefore, to live the mission of contributing to the realization of God's plan: the birth of a new humanity always more and more united in the valorisation of legitimate diversities. Of this humanity, the Church is called to anticipate with her testimony. Through the different phases of the Scalabrini-Fest, the participants tried to identify together the new steps to live the mission of Catholicism in their daily lives, in the trust that the Eucharist is already transforming us in the only Body of Christ. (LD) (Agenzia Fides 12/10/2011)
