AMERICA/BRAZIL - First missionary experience of fifty young men and women religious in the Amazon

Itaituba (Agenzia Fides) - The Episcopal Commission for the Amazon, together with those for Youth and Missionry Action of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB), in collaboration with the Conference of Religious of Brazil (CRB), carried out with great success, from March 28 to April 6, the First Mission of young religious life, at the Diocese of Obidos and the Prelature of Itaituba, in Brazil.
According to the note sent to Fides by local sources, fifty young men and women religious of ten Brazilian states, after a day of formation in Santarem, were sent on a mission in the two particular Churches.
The goal was to give a chance to young religious people to live a missionary experience in Amazonian lands.
"Our expectation is that, through this experience, young people are then able to live with passion the cause of the Amazon and, consequently, their religious congregations can send missionaries in the Amazon reality, which needs the presence of the Church" said Sister Mary Irene Lopes dos Santos, a member of the Commission for the Amazon of the CNBB.
The President of the Conference of Religious of Brazil (CRB), Sister Maria Inês Ribeiro, confirmed that the primary motivation for the "First youth Mission of religious life" in the Amazon came from Pope Francis during World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, in 2013: "He asked us to commit ourselves to the Amazon. In 2014 the Youth Mission Project for the Amazon gathered about three thousand adhesions of young people, including many men and women religious. The CRB then decided to follow the young religious who accepted the mission in the Amazon. And in this Year of Consecrated Life, the mission was a good time to thank the great gift". (CE) (Agenzia Fides 13/04/2015)