EUROPE/ITALY - WE MUST THINK NOT ONLY OF DEMOLISHING, BUT OF COMMITTING OURSELVES TO BUILDING NEW MISSIONARY PATHS TO RESPOND TO TODAY’S WORLD: ITALIAN NATIONAL WEEK OF MISSIONARY SPIRITUALITY AND FORMATION IN ASSISI COMES TO AN END

Tuesday, 2 September 2003

Assisi (Fides Service ) – Diocesan Missionary Centres become ‘fraternal teams’ of people able to transmit concretely to parishes the Church’s missionary dimension; parish communities strive to identify ways and words to carry the message of hope and salvation to all the people in the parish; paths of new evangelisation demand new missionary ministries such as welcoming and visiting, settling of conflicts, consolation of those afflicted by various existential difficulties…these were some of the proposals which emerged from the work of the “Week of Missionary Spirituality and Formation” in Assisi which closed on 30 August, organised by the Italian National Office for Missionary Cooperation among the Churches.
Presenting the theme of the Week - "The Church Home and School of Communion " - Mgr Giuseppe Andreozzi, Director of the National Office for Missionary Cooperation among the Churches, said it was an anticipation of the subject chosen for discussion by the National Missionary Meeting in Montesilvano (Pescara) from 27 al 30 September next year 2004, on "Communion co-responsibility for mission". Among the many speakers, Archbishop Agostino Superbo indicated some concrete paths for the pastoral life of Christian communities, including: never separate Christ from the Church or the Church from humanity; valorise the family as home and school of communion; try a style of pastoral in which ecclesial communion consists in shouldering responsibility to carry to others the great gift of Christ’s Gospel. Archbishop Luigi Bressan, urged those present not to think only about demolishing the things that don’t work, but rather, like Francis and Clare, in love with Christ, to strive to open new missionary paths in response to the appeals of the world today and above all to respond to the demanding question Jesus put to Peter: “Do you love me?” (S.L.) (Fides Service 2/9/2003 – lines 22 ; words 291)


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