Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Pucallpa (Fides Service) - The Apostolic Vicariate of Pucallpa is celebrating this month the 50th anniversary of its foundation and the arrival of the first missionaries of the Quebec Society for Foreign Missions.
Celebrations will start on 23 February with Mass in Pucallpa Cathedral. Thousands of Catholics from other parts of the country will join those of the Vicariate to thank God for all these years of service by the QSFM.
On Sunday 26 February there will be a Mass in the Mother Church for the 50th anniversary to which every parish, and religious and civil authorities have been invited.
Quebec Society for Foreign Missions reached Peru in 1956 charged by the Sacred Congregation De Propaganda Fide (renamed by Paul VI in 1967 the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples ) to start an apostolic work in the newly instituted Vicariate of Pucallpa.
The Society was founded by the bishops of the province of Quebec in Canada, on 2 February 1921, as a response to the Canadian Church’s desire to help with the work of evangelisation and show solidarity with other Churches sharing its own spiritual and human resources.
The first mission was opened in China. Later missions were opened in the Philippines, Japan, Cambodia and Indonesia where Quebec Society for Foreign Missions were present in the 1970s and today it is present in Thailand with associated lay missionaries.
In Latin America the Quebec Society for Foreign Missions has missions in Cuba, Honduras, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Peru, it is present in Africa in Kenya and Sudan. Of course its missionaries work in Canada, where the Society was founded.
With the institution of the Vicariate of Pucallpa 2 March 1956, QSFM undertook its missionary mandate for Peru, where on 6 January 1957, Bishop Gustavo Prevost was consecrated first bishop. (AP) (21/2/2006 Agenzia Fides; Righe:29; Parole:322)
